Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay

Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay is the United States Navy's Atlantic Fleet home port for Ohio-class fleet ballistic missile submarines armed with Trident II (D-5) missiles. It lies on the East River adjacent to St. Marys, Camden County, Georgia, with a dredged channel running to Cumberland Sound. The installation covers about 16,000 acres, roughly 4,000 of which are protected wetlands, and falls under Navy Region Southeast.

The senior command is Submarine Group 10, a subordinate of Commander, Submarine Force U.S. Atlantic Fleet, which holds operational and administrative control of the Ohio-class boats based at Kings Bay and directs the administration and training of submarine offcrews. Submarine Squadron 20 administers the East Coast SSBN force and its strategic deterrent patrols; Submarine Squadron 16 administers the two East Coast Ohio-class guided-missile submarines, Florida and Georgia, converted to SSGN configuration and completed in 2006 and 2008, and supports SSBNs during and after major overhaul. The squadron also has the Columbia-class pre-commissioning unit District of Columbia assigned. The Naval Submarine Support Center provides centralized administrative, material and waterfront support to both squadrons and to visiting units.

Strategic Weapons Facility Atlantic supplies strategic missiles and weapons system support to the SSBN force and supports the Tomahawk-armed SSGNs, assembling D-5 missiles and processing guidance and launcher subsystem components. Its 800-acre, 24-building complex, built between 1985 and 1994, includes two explosive handling wharves. Marine Corps Security Force Battalion, Kings Bay secures SWFLANT assets and is prepared to conduct recapture or recovery operations, working alongside Navy Masters-at-Arms and Navy security officers. A U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Force Protection Unit escorts submarines transiting on the surface, operating Marine Protector-class cutters ordered by the Navy and fitted with remotely operated gyrostabilised machine guns.

The Trident Refit Facility, the largest tenant command, conducts incremental overhaul, modernisation and repair of Trident submarines and provides submarine supply and spare parts support. It operates a covered drydock and a Magnetic Silencing Facility offering degaussing and permanent magnetism removal for U.S. Navy and Royal Navy submarines and steel-hulled surface warships, the only such facility on the East Coast. The Defensive Ordnance Support Facility maintains and stores the torpedoes carried by the Trident submarines. The Trident Training Facility provides crew and support personnel training using equipment simulators for damage control, firefighting, ship control, navigation, weapons and engineering systems.

The Navy took over a former Army ocean terminal built at Kings Bay in the 1950s, establishing Naval Submarine Support Base Kings Bay on 1 July 1978 to receive Submarine Squadron 16 following its withdrawal from Rota, Spain. The submarine tender Simon Lake arrived on 2 July 1979, beginning refit operations. Selection as the Atlantic Trident home port, announced in October 1980, drove a construction programme exceeding $1.7 billion by the end of the 1980s, and the first Trident submarine, Tennessee, arrived on 15 January 1989.