USS Illinois (SSN 786)

USS ILLINOIS History:

USS ILLINOIS originated in the long-term modernization program that produced the VIRGINIA-class attack submarines as replacements for aging LOS ANGELES-class boats. On December 22, 2008, the Navy awarded the construction contract for the submarine that would become USS ILLINOIS to a teaming arrangement between General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut, and Huntington Ingalls Industries at Newport News, Virginia, with Electric Boat designated as builder of this hull. The boat was planned as the third Block III variant, incorporating a redesigned bow with large-diameter payload tubes derived from the converted OHIO-class guided-missile submarines.

In 2012, the White House announced that First Lady Michelle Obama would serve as ship's sponsor for the future USS ILLINOIS, linking the new submarine symbolically to the state where she had lived and to the crew's families. Construction moved forward through modular fabrication. On June 2, 2014, a keel-laying ceremony was held at Electric Boat's Quonset Point facility in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, marking the formal start of assembly. Michelle Obama participated in the event as sponsor, welding her initials into a steel plate that would remain aboard. By late 2014, photographs from the Groton yard showed the pressure hull structurally complete and the bow and stern sections joined, illustrating the shift from module fabrication to final assembly.

Roll-out preparations in 2015 moved the nearly complete hull from the assembly building toward the building ways. On July 24, 2015, USS ILLINOIS was rolled out at Electric Boat in Groton, a key step that allowed the submarine to be positioned for launch. On August 7, 2015, the float-off for the launch began, and the submarine was officially launched on August 8, 2015, entering the water for the first time in the Thames River at Groton. Final outfitting and pier-side system testing continued through the end of 2015 and into 2016.

The boat's formal christening took place at Electric Boat in Groton on October 10, 2015. During that ceremony, Michelle Obama christened USS ILLINOIS with the traditional breaking of a bottle, addressing the crew and shipyard workers and formally giving the submarine its name in Navy tradition.

After winter and spring preparations, USS ILLINOIS put to sea from Groton on August 1, 2016, for a series of builder's and acceptance sea trials in the Atlantic. Navy and industry imagery shows the submarine operating on the surface at speed and diving during these trials, which tested propulsion, combat systems, and ship-handling performance. According to Navy program reports, the boat completed its sea trials in early August 2016, meeting performance requirements that allowed it to move rapidly toward fleet introduction.

On August 27, 2016, the Navy accepted delivery of PCU ILLINOIS (as the boat was then designated) ahead of the contractual delivery date, marking the thirteenth VIRGINIA-class submarine delivered and the third of the Block III group. The program office emphasized that ILLINOIS continued the record of VIRGINIA-class boats delivering early and within budget and noted that the plan was to have the submarine "out on operations" the following year, achieving mission-ready status in a little over six years from construction start. During the delivery phase the crew transitioned from construction to operational routines, taking full responsibility for the ship while finishing post-delivery work and training.

USS ILLINOIS was commissioned into active service at Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton on October 29, 2016. The ceremony took place on the Thames River waterfront, with the commissioning committee, Illinois state representatives and Navy leadership present. During the event, Michelle Obama, as sponsor, gave the traditional order to "bring the ship to life", after which the crew ran aboard and manned the submarine's stations. From that date, USS ILLINOIS entered the operational fleet as the 13th VIRGINIA-class attack submarine, initially based at Groton under the Atlantic submarine commands. Through late 2016 and into 2017, the boat conducted the series of post-shakedown activities, local operations, and training events required for a new submarine to integrate into fleet operations, largely in the western Atlantic and off the New England coast. Open sources do not provide detailed descriptions of individual exercises or port visits in this early operating period, but they document repeated presence at Naval Submarine Base New London in 2016 and 2017.

In 2017, the Navy decided to base USS ILLINOIS in the Pacific, reflecting the growing emphasis on fast-attack submarines in the Indo-Pacific theater. During that year, the crew and families prepared for a major homeport shift from Groton to Hawaii. On November 22, 2017, USS ILLINOIS arrived at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, completing the transit from New England to the central Pacific. A Navy press release dated November 26, 2017, records that the Pearl Harbor submarine community formally welcomed the crew and families following the homeport change and notes that the boat was assigned to Submarine Squadron One (CSS-1), headquartered at Pearl Harbor. This move placed USS ILLINOIS among the forward-leaning PACFLT attack submarine force tasked with supporting U.S. presence and contingency operations across the western Pacific and into the Indian Ocean.

From late 2017 through 2018, USS ILLINOIS operated from its new homeport at Pearl Harbor. Publicly available imagery and releases show the boat conducting local operations and participating in the normal cycle of underway periods and in-port maintenance at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, but open sources do not provide detailed port-by-port accounts for this period. The submarine's role, like that of its sister ships, was to contribute to the Pacific Fleet's undersea warfare posture during a time of rising tensions with North Korea and increasing strategic competition with China, supporting surveillance, tracking, and readiness missions as directed by the operational chain of command.

USS ILLINOIS's first documented Western Pacific deployment as a Pearl Harbor-based unit began in early 2019. Navy imagery shows the submarine departing Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on March 1, 2019, described as getting underway on a scheduled deployment, marking the boat's first extended cruise westward from its Hawaiian base. This departure on March 1 constituted the boat's maiden Western Pacific deployment. Within the first phase of the cruise, USS ILLINOIS transited to Japan. On March 11 the submarine moored at Berth 13S at Fleet Activities Yokosuka for a scheduled port visit, placing the boat in the principal U.S. Navy base on Tokyo Bay that supports forward-deployed forces in the U.S. Seventh Fleet area. On March 14, 2019, a series of official portraits was taken on the pier at U.S. Fleet Activities Yokosuka showing USS ILLINOIS crew members, confirming the submarine's continued presence in port at that time and illustrating the liberty and engagement phase typical of such visits. After completing its Yokosuka visit and follow-on operations - details of which are not publicly specified - the submarine eventually returned across the Philippine Sea and Pacific and came back to Pearl Harbor, closing this first documented Western Pacific deployment. Open sources do not provide exact return dates, but photographs from 2019 show the submarine again operating from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

Later in 2019, USS ILLINOIS experienced at least one command transition while in Hawaii. Image captions show a change of command ceremony held on board at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in November 2019, indicating routine rotation of commanding officers while the submarine remained in service with Submarine Squadron One.

In 2020, as the U.S. submarine force maintained operations despite the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, publicly available imagery documents USS ILLINOIS getting underway repeatedly from Pearl Harbor. Departures from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam are recorded in July 2020 and again in September 2020, showing the submarine leaving the harbor with crew topside on the sail and quarterdeck. These departures likely marked multi-week patrols or extended training operations in the central and western Pacific, conducted under precautions designed to limit virus exposure while sustaining the continuous-at-sea presence required in U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy. The boat returned each time to Pearl Harbor for logistics and upkeep between periods at sea.

In March 2021 photographs again show USS ILLINOIS departing Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, suggesting the start of another deployment or extended patrol from Hawaii. The submarine was away from its homeport for several months. Image captions record that USS ILLINOIS returned to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on September 13, 2021, with multiple photographs showing the boat entering the harbor and tying up at the submarine piers. This roughly six-month interval is consistent with a standard deployment length for a fast-attack submarine, though public sources do not specify operating areas or intermediate ports for that 2021 cruise. The deployment took place against the backdrop of continued U.S. emphasis on undersea deterrence and intelligence collection in the Indo-Pacific during heightened regional focus on North Korea's weapons programs and ongoing maritime disputes in the South and East China Seas.

In early 2022, USS ILLINOIS shifted from Pacific patrol duties to Arctic operations, joining Ice Exercise (ICEX) 2022 in the Beaufort Sea and Arctic Ocean. Navy photo captions show the submarine surfaced through Arctic sea ice and moored to an ice floe in the Beaufort Sea in March 2022 as part of this large-scale under-ice exercise. ICEX events test submarine operations in the polar environment, including under-ice navigation, communications, and weapons system performance. Imagery records that Admiral Frank Caldwell Jr., the director of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, visited USS ILLINOIS during ICEX 22, underscoring the importance of the submarine force's Arctic proficiency for strategic deterrence and freedom of navigation in high-latitude waters. Following ICEX, USS ILLINOIS returned to the Pacific submarine force at Pearl Harbor.

Late in 2022, USS ILLINOIS began another documented deployment. A U.S. Navy news story issued in July 2023 records that USS ILLINOIS deployed from Pearl Harbor in December 2022 for a seven-month Indo-Pacific deployment. During this cruise, the submarine operated in the U.S. Seventh Fleet area of operations, performing what the Navy described as a "full spectrum" of missions, including anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare. Publicly available summaries indicate that during 2023, while deployed, USS ILLINOIS conducted multiple port visits in Japan, including scheduled periods moored at Fleet Activities Yokosuka. Among the recorded dates is a mooring at Yokosuka from June 25 to July 1, consistent with the submarine conducting upkeep and giving the crew limited liberty between operational periods. Over the course of the deployment, the boat is reported to have traveled approximately 35,000 nautical miles submerged, underscoring the sustained nature of its patrols across the western Pacific.

USS ILLINOIS returned from this Indo-Pacific deployment to its homeport at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on July 3, 2023. The Navy news release dated July 19, 2023, describes the submarine's homecoming, noting that family members and supporters greeted the crew on the pier as the boat moored at Pearl Harbor after seven months at sea. In statements quoted in that release, the commanding officer emphasized the difficulty of sustaining deployed operations in remote areas of the Pacific and highlighted the support from families and the Illinois sponsor community. The article also notes that during the deployment forty-one sailors aboard USS ILLINOIS earned their Submarine Warfare Specialist designation, or "dolphins", illustrating the crew-training dimension of a long deployment.

Following its return, USS ILLINOIS entered a major maintenance phase at Pearl Harbor. An article in September 2024 on submarine work at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard records that USS ILLINOIS, together with other VIRGINIA-class submarines, was undergoing dry-dock work at the shipyard. The report notes that USS ILLINOIS entered dry dock in late 2023 after completing its seven-month Indo-Pacific deployment and that the maintenance package, estimated at about $443 million, included structural inspections, repairs, system replacements, nuclear-plant work, and new coatings. The same article explains that this work formed part of a broader effort to keep the growing VIRGINIA-class fleet at Pearl Harbor fully maintained and ready at a time when attack submarines are considered a key element of U.S. military advantage in any high-end conflict, particularly in the Western Pacific and around the South China Sea.

By 2024, USS ILLINOIS remained assigned to Submarine Squadron One at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, listed among the VIRGINIA-class attack submarines based there in open-source summaries of Pacific Fleet submarine organization.

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USS ILLINOIS Image Gallery:

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