2 subs and sub tender to switch homeports - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

2 subs and sub tender to switch homeports

Roughly 115 officers and 1,500 sailors on three vessels will change homeports in 2010 and 2011 as the Navy continues to bolster its submarine presence in the Pacific.

The homeport of the submarine tender Emory S. Land will be changed to the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia in the summer of 2010, where it will provide support to fast-attack and guided-missile subs in 5th Fleet. The ship is undergoing depot-level maintenance in its homeport, Bremerton, Wash., and is expected to finish in the spring.

“Forward-deploying USS Emory S. Land to Diego Garcia will dramatically reduce transit time for our submarines operating in 5th Fleet that require intermediate level maintenance, emergent repair, or logistics support,” Rear Adm. Douglas McAneny, Commander Submarine Force Pacific, said in a statement Tuesday.

In other moves, the Guam-based attack submarine City of Corpus Christi will relocate to Pearl Harbor for repairs in the fall of 2010. The sub has called Guam home since 2002, when it became the first of three Los Angeles-class submarines to be homeported there as part of Submarine Squadron 15.

The Norfolk, Va.-based attack submarine Oklahoma City will replace the City of Corpus Christi in Guam in the spring of 2011.

“Shifting homeports for USS Oklahoma City and USS City of Corpus Christi ensure that our most technologically advanced submarines are forward, so we maintain our ability to dominate the sea base and shape potential adversaries,” McAneny said. Commissioned 27 years ago, the City of Corpus Christi is six years older than Oklahoma City.

The changes are part of an ongoing push mandated by the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review. The review emphasized the importance of the Asia-Pacific region and the increased threat posed by the proliferation of foreign submarines in the Pacific. In response, it required 60 percent of U.S. submarines to be homeported in the Pacific by the end of 2010. Currently, 31 of 53 attack submarines — or 58 percent — are based there.