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Well, I know back in the 50's, the battleship Wisconsin had to have her bow replaced after she collided with a destroyer. So, they cut the bow off of the unfinished battleship Kentucky, which was later scrapped.

Granted, however, replacing the bow of a battleship is much different from an SSN, because if the repair fails on the battleship (which it hasn't after 45+ years) the worst that will happen is she has to return to port. If the same were to happen to a sub hundreds of feet underwater, the sub would end up in the same conversations as the Thresher and Scorpion.

Right: Battleship bows have lights. A couple of power cords, and noting else but empty space for the goat locker (er, bosun's locker) and anchor chain space.

Swapping bows would mean removing the ENTIRE combat suite, and some 12,000 cables and several thousand more high air, hydraulic, water, oil, and EMBT blow and vent piping from BOTH sub's, then rebuilding and reconnecting ALL OF THEM (and re-retesting them again!) in the rebuilt boat.

Not practical, unless some admiral has more money than sense. Or is told to do so by some politician with more tax money than sense.

Well yeah... but KY and WI are pretty close to each other. For that to work you would have to take the bow off something that close... and the Oakland was a light cruiser in WWII - slightly different bows... plus you probably shaved with the Oakland as a teenager (she was sold for a couple hundred thousand).

Closest you can get in the same class is maybe the Pasadena (SSN752) or Olympia (717?) and they're in use right now.

Seriously, I'm not going to completely agree with Mr Cook... his experience is superior to mine, but subs ain't cheap and a few thousand connections doesn't compare to a replacement cost of $2Billion (which used to buy you a Nimitz). On the other hand... she's almost 25 years old and the Virginia's ( SSN-774) are starting to join the fleet.

The last 688 was launched over a decade ago... the only way to pick up an "extra bow" is the way I swapped the engine in my '68 Saab (find one that got totaled from the rear and just take parts from the front). Any 688s back down on a sea mount lately?

I think it could go wither way. She looks like a MESS (this is more than "paint and powder" by a long shot) but it's amazing what some of these guys can do.