What happens when a navy loses its biggest hidden missile magazines before enough replacements are in the water? That question is moving from planning tables to fleet reality as the U.S. Navy approaches the retirement of its four Ohio-class guided-missile submarines: USS Ohio, USS Michigan, USS Florida, and USS Georgia. These boats are unusual even by submarine standards. Each carries 154 Tomahawk missiles, giving the force an undersea strike density unmatched by any other U.S. submarine class. Their departure, scheduled from 2026 through 2028, is not simply a matter of older hulls leaving service. It is the removal of a concentrated conventional strike capability that has shaped how the Navy can position firepower close to shore while keeping launch platforms concealed.
The scale is the central issue. The SSGN conversion replaced ballistic-missile arrangements with 22 tubes carrying seven Tomahawks each, while also preserving room for special operations support. This allowed each submarine to combine long-range strike, covert insertion, and command functions in a single platform. Naval planners have long valued that mix because a single boat can remain on station for extended periods, hold a large target set at risk, and do so with much less warning than a surface group.
That loss will not be offset on a one-for-one basis. The Block V Virginia-class submarine with the Virginia Payload Module is the Navy’s answer, and it is a meaningful improvement over earlier Virginias. The added module increases missile capacity from 12 to 40 Tomahawks, using four large-diameter launch tubes in an inserted hull section of about 84 feet. It also preserves the Virginia class’s broader advantages in sensors, processing, and attack-submarine versatility. But the numbers show a significant shortfall.
Naval News noted that the four retiring SSGNs account for nearly half of the vertical launch payload capacity in the U.S. submarine force. Replacing that magazine depth requires far more than commissioning a few improved attack boats. The same reporting said the Navy would need 22 Virginia Payload Module boats to fully recover the lost capacity, yet submarine construction has been slowed by industrial strain, pandemic-era disruption, and the overriding priority of the Columbia-class ballistic missile program. In practice, that means the Navy is entering a period in which retiring capacity disappears faster than replacement capacity arrives.
Pressure is heightened by demand for Tomahawks, which remain preferred for long-range strikes due to launch flexibility and in-flight updates on newer variants. According to recent reporting, RTX is working to raise output to over 1,000 missiles a year, a sign that inventory depth is now an industrial issue as much as an operational one. Adm. James Kilby captured that concern in congressional testimony: “Precision-guided, long-range munitions like Tomahawk, Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, the heavyweight torpedo, all those ammunitions we need to increase production on.”
The Ohio SSGNs were never just primarily missile-carrying platforms. They could host up to 66 special operations personnel, support swimmer lockout operations, and act as forward command nodes with upgraded communications. That combination made them especially useful in maritime theaters where distance, concealment, and persistence matter as much as raw firepower.
The Navy’s transition path is visible, but the the capability shortfall is apparent. Four aging submarines that once concentrated hundreds of Tomahawks in hidden launch cells are exiting service before their successors can restore the same undersea mass.
