It makes no sense having that many subs in Hawaii when you know where the fight is going to be. The US/UK will build 8 SSNs for AUS. Until then, they can train with us on ours, learn the logistics of supporting a nuke fleet, cut the response time, and keep them mobile by rotating them throughout the Indo-Pacific: to places like Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, Japan, and India, which would drive China crazy.
I’d do more wicked out-of-the-box deployments and put a pair of the San Diego boats on Midway and Wake Island, and surge them into the AOR during major Chinese fleet exercises.
The Marine Corps is in transformation. This is a good time to get them involved too so that they protect the fleet.
“It makes no sense having that many subs in Hawaii”
I would argue that they’re not actually in Hawaii, they are homeported out of Hawaii and there are tenders that can be just about anywhere in the world to provide Logistics or any repair concerns.
But then again, these are nuke subs and diesel boats would be much easier to maintain in various facilities globally.
The whole concept of a nuclear Navy is to have durable far-reaching assets with that can operate independently if required to do so. A diesel boat or staging tenders and other supporting assets throughout the world does not coincide with current strategic planning for nuclear powered fleets, sustainable through nuclear power for extended periods.