So is the theory that the “decommissioned sub” wasn’t actually out of commission and was still able to fire missiles? *note to self to check all “decommissioned” subs, ships, aircraft for readiness*
Someone posted the status from DoN. I believe the word used at the end was “scrapped”.
FWIW, the Glomar Explorer was sold for a pretty good chunk of change ~ 2013/14 IIRC and then shipped of to China for scrap in 2015 (which I thought odd).
It, or a similar constructed ship, could service a long endurance non nuclear sub without its (the sub) needing to surface.