“Still-a 700 day deployment even for a piece of equipment seems excessive to me. I personally don’t understand how a vessel like that could go that long without dockyard work.”
Nuclear subs routinely go two years without going into a dockyard.
On our WestPac tours we stopped in Guam for maintence supported by a sub tender.
Also at our Yokosuka Naval Facility.
So, you were a Bubblehead then! Well, I don’t claim in any way to be knowledgable on submarines in any way, only went on an active one once.
I was on a carrier, and that seemed to go in and out of the yards with the frequency of a cheap ham radio, but that might just be my memory too, or perhaps the vessel was unfortunate in that respect.