In December, the US Navy released its 30-year ship-building plan, which called for building 404 new vessels to reach a 541-ship fleet by 2051, with 304 current vessels retired over that period.
Fourteen of the vessels to be retired are nuclear-powered and thus need to be recycled as part of the Navy's Ship-Submarine Recycling Program to ensure safe disposal of their nuclear reactors and fuel.
USS Ohio, lead ship of the class, will be one of the two SSGNs recycled. It will be the end of a four-decade career for the first sub of its kind.
USS Ohio at a naval base in Busan, South Korea, with its dry deck chamber open, February 26, 2008. KIM JAE-HWAN/AFP via Getty Images