Tag Archives: USS Emory S. Land (AS 39)

Building 39 Down Under, Seeming Very Familiar

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A recurring theme of WWII U.S. submarine war patrols, as witnessed in yesterday’s Warship Wednesday on the USS Burrfish, was the typical cycle of going out on a 50-to-70-day deployment and then returning to a forward-deployed submarine tender for a three-week reset/resupply, and hitting the patrol beat once again.

That’s what allowed many boats, barring extreme damage that sent them stateside for repair, to pull off a dozen or more patrols inside a two or three-year period. During the Pacific war, over 40 American submarines made at least 10 patrols, with five making 15 and the USS Stingray (SS-186) making an amazing 16 patrols in the 39 months between December 1941 and February 1945.

The U.S. Navy submarine tender USS Holland (AS-3) doing what tenders do, with seven nursing submarines of Submarine Squadron 6 and Submarine Division 12 alongside, in San Diego harbor, California (USA), on 24 December 1934. The submarines are (from left to right): USS Cachalot (SS-170), USS Dolphin (SS-169), USS Barracuda (SS-163), and USS Bass (SS-164), USS Bonita (SS-165), USS Nautilus (SS-168) and USS Narwhal (SS-167). Despite her small size and limited abilities, Holland proved her worth over and over in WWII, escaping from the Philippines in 1942 and setting up shop in Australia, surviving the conflict, and completing 55 submarine refits during the war. 80-G-63334

This concept still exists in the Submarine Tendered Maintenance Period (SMTP) format, which can be accomplished in about three weeks alongside a submarine tender, despite today’s SSNs being far more advanced than the old fleet boats of the 1940s.

The hulking 23,000-ton USS Emory S. Land (AS 39), the lead ship of her three-hull class of the Navy’s most modern submarine tenders, is a combination of floating warehouse, hotel, and shipyard, packing over 50 specialized workshops in her 13 decks while housing over 1,000 bluejackets and MSC civilian mariners. Some 45 years young (one of her class was laid up in 1999 after a full career), she doesn’t move very often, instead allowing her charges to come to her for rest and support.

Since arriving at her current homeport in Guam in 2016, she has become such an enduring fixture there that she is often just referred to as “Building 39.”

However, Emory S. Land departed Guam on 17 May on a roaming deployment supporting the U.S. 7th Fleet, and last week made her seventh port call, HMAS Stirling, the Royal Australian Navy’s “stone frigate” on Garden Island outside of Perth.

Garden Island, Western Australia, Australia (Aug. 16, 2024) – Royal Australian Navy sailors prepare for the submarine tender USS Emory S. Land (AS 39) to moor at HMAS Stirling, Western Australia, Australia, Aug. 16. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Darek Leary)

Carrying 30 RAN ratings since last winter, the tender is set to conduct an STMP at Stirling as part of AUKUS Pillar 1’s effort to support Australia’s acquisition of a sovereign conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine capability.

This is the first time Australians have participated in a U.S. submarine maintenance period in Australia.

Likewise, a forward team of Sailors from Land have been in Stirling awaiting the arrival of their ship and getting things ready.

Garden Island, Western Australia, Australia (Aug. 16, 2024) – U.S. Navy Sailors assigned to the submarine tender USS Emory S. Land (AS 39), temporarily attached to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Fleet Support Unit-West (FSU), and RAN sailors assigned to FSU, stand in formation as the Emory S. Land prepares to moor at HMAS Stirling, Western Australia, Australia, Aug. 16. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Darek Leary)

Land just got her first customer yesterday.

240822-N-XP344-2170 HMAS STIRLING, Western Australia, Australia (Aug. 22, 2024) – Sailors assigned to the Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Hawaii (SSN 776) prepare to moor at HMAS Stirling, Western Australia, Australia, as part of a scheduled port visit before conducting a submarine tendered maintenance period (STMP) with the submarine tender USS Emory S. Land (AS 39), Aug. 22.(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Victoria Mejicanos)

As noted by the Navy:

The Emory S. Land crew will execute planned and emergent maintenance activities including the removal and reinstallation of an antenna located in Hawaii’s sail, divers visually inspecting the underwater towed array and torpedo tube muzzles, and simulating the removal and installation of a trim pump, to include full rigging and preparations.

Looks like this is really happening.

Freemantle, ahoy!

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In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the idea to keep the Japanese Combined Fleet fenced in its home waters was through investing a lot in submarines. Admiral Hart’s Asiatic Squadron, based in the Philippines, had no capital ships and just a few old cruisers and destroyers, but it did have subs– 29 of them!

As noted in IJNH:

Following his arrival as CinCAF in 1939, Hart had steadily increased the number of submarines assigned to his small fleet from six to seventeen, including the first modern fleet-type boats. As the war clouds gathered in November 1941, another squadron of twelve modern fleet boats with their submarine tender Holland sailed into Manila Bay from Pearl Harbor as reinforcements.

Likewise, the Dutch spent a bunch of guilders in buying Koloniën (“colonial”) submarines for use in barring the door to the Dutch East Indies.

Of course, events soon proved that almost nothing was enough to stop the Japanese juggernaut in December 1941-April 1942 and (almost) all of these boats soon found themselves forced to withdraw to the best friendly option available at the time— Freemantle in Western Australia.

Freemantle was a submarine hub in the West Pac during WWII, with Allied boats of all stripes including British and Dutch vessels, mixing with locals and Americans. In all, some 170 Allied subs at one time or another passed through Fremantle between 1941 and 1945.

In fact, during the war, no less than 127 American submarines operated out of Fremantle at one time or another, carrying out 353 patrols. Added to this were 10 Dutch boats and, after August 1944, an increasing number of British Pacific Fleet boats. All told the Allies mounted something like 416 submarine patrols from Fremantle during the war.

“From 1943 to 1945 Fremantle-based boats sank over 273,000 tons of enemy tankers as well as 19 destroyers, 16 frigates, 4 minesweepers, 9 submarine chasers, and 6 patrol craft.”

And, in this edition of Everything Old is New Again, an American sub-tender is headed to HMAS Stirling, just outside of Freemantle.

From Navy Times:

The Navy plans to conduct its first-ever submarine maintenance work in Australia this summer using the sub tender Emory S. Land, with 30 Australian sailors embarked to learn how to repair the Virginia class of submarine.

This step will help establish a nuclear-powered attack submarine maintenance capability at the HMAS Stirling naval base in Western Australia in the next few years as part of the trilateral AUKUS arrangement.

And the beat goes on…

Guam Shoot-ex, with feeling

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The 23,000-ton submarine tender USS Emory S. Land (AS-39), ordered under the Nixon Administration and now just 42 years young, has been termed the worst cruise ship to ever call sail the Pacific. For the last half of her career, she has been forward deployed, first in the Med, then at Diego Garcia, and, since 2016, to Guam, with breaks for stateside maintenance. 

APRA HARBOR, Guam (May 20, 2021) Sailors assigned to the submarine tender USS Emory S. Land (AS 39) man the rails while transiting Apra Harbor, May 20. Land returned home to Guam following an eight-month scheduled maintenance period at Mare Island Dry Dock in Vallejo, California. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jason Behnke)

The partially MSC-crewed vessel is still a “USS” rather than a “USNS” and carries topside weapons, which her Bluejackets qualified on last week in conjunction with the 80th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Guam.

Photos: MCSN Arauz, MCSA Leary