USS Ohio (SSBN-726)

The Ohio, as seen in-game

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> "Always First" - the Ohio's motto.
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## Background History

The **SSBN Ohio** is the lead boat of the Ohio-class nuclear-powered fleet ballistic missile submarines (SSBN). The ship was converted to a conventional cruise missile submarine (SSGN), along with three other sister boats, during 2003 to January 9, 2006.

The ship was laid down during April 10, 1976; was launched during April 7, 1979; and was commissioned during November 11, 1981. During her service, the boat received extensive upgrades and also partook in a response by the United States on Chinese missile testing in the East China sea.

In December 2020, it was announced that the Ohio would be decommissioned and enter the Ship-Submarine Recycling Program by 2026.

## Overview

USS Ohio, one of the more famous subs in this game along with Type 096, primarily because of it's impotent health and incredibly large missile armament.

During September 11, 2021; a video was released showcasing the submarine, armed with the upcoming Trident missile.

The ship is tier 3 and costs 20 million dollars. It has 5 missile slots and 2 torpedo slots.

## Tactics

### Playing as an Ohio

When the enemy is spotted and can be targeted. Launch 2 missiles and leave the other 3 on standby. This is to bait the enemy to flaring. After the flare was launched, immediately follow with the 3 ready missiles. Always stay underwater and avoid enemy submarines if possible. The Ohio has the lowest durability even after upgrades.

An alternative route is to carry a single slot of tomahawk missiles. There are 2 reasons for this. Firstly, it's fast reload rate allows you to quickly fire several rounds in short order especially at medium to longer ranges, baiting the enemy to use countermeasures, allowing you to send in a devastating hit of 4 trident (or Bulava) missiles. Secondly, the Tomahawk missile can serve as a self defense weapon with its fast reload while the tridents are down giving you some degree of reactive measures other than just the slow loading torpedoes. Even better if you have access to the nuclear warhead version. Unfortunately, being tier II weapons, expect them to be useless against ships with extremely stacked AA loadouts.

However, Tridents may not be enough even after your tomahawks trigger enemy countermeasures, since all SLBMs (submarine launched ballistic missiles, in this game there are 3 being JL-3, UGM-133 Trident, and RSM-56 Bulava) sacrifice speed for damage, not tactically useful most of the time, especially online. This is why DF-17 and/or scalp is recommended. Those missiles allow you to play at medium to long ranges out of the enemy's crosshairs (they'll be fighting your teammates instead), while simultaneously delivering their payload that although smaller than those of bulava reload faster and get to their target faster, and this is a common misconception in missile choice in this game, which is that damage > everything else. It's not. Having a bunch of nuclear warheads is nice but they are useless if they can't reach the enemy.

### Playing along an Ohio

This shouldn't be hard to do. Just let the Ohio do it's thing, but cover it when it strays too close to the front lines, and destroy any ships or (especially) enemy subs (ESPECIALLY Type 096's) that may be targeting it, as Ohio's extremely low durability and ability to dodge incoming torpedoes means it won't last long under fire from another submarine, especially a type 096 or an SMX-31.

### Playing against an Ohio

The Ohio might have a low HP pool even when fully upgraded but its sheer number of missile slots and the heavy damage the tridents can inflict makes it a lethal opponent in a dragged out duel, especially if it is submerged. As such, it should be a priority target of friendly submarines or carriers with anti submarine helicopters and/or torpedo armed aircraft. One could also camp a helicopter over the submarine, forcing them to run down their oxygen supply to avoid being damage farmed, before ultimately sinking them as they are forced to surface.

## Suggested Armaments Setup

The ship, with its flexible armaments setup, can be armed with various weapons that will furthermore improve the ship's performance. Below are some suggested weapons setup. But, bear in mind that these are just suggestions.

Missile Slot - 4x RSM-56 Bulava & 1x P700 Granit (Bulava for High damage and Granit for shielding the Bulava, this build is not recommended since bulava is expensive and granit cannot be underwater launched), 5x DF-17 (for long range combat where you will be mostly, stay unspotted or dive and surface frequently to launch), 5x SCALP (similar playstyle to the 5x DF setup), 5x Trident (High damage, faster reload than Bulava, comes with the ship. Recommended until access to DF-17's or SCALP's. Still viable even then.)

Torpedoes: Yu-7(torp spam), A244 SLWT (fast reload), Mark 48 (high damage, comes with the ship, recommended for level 15-19 players).

## Advantages and Disadvantages

### Advantages

1. Already comes available with Trident missiles allowing it to launch missiles underwater, although use of SLBMs is not recommended outside of nuking ships down on flares or at point blank range.
2. Comes available with 5 missile slots, giving her a very strong missile based firepower.
3. Her torpedo slots (specifically the fact they are 2x) allow for flexibility as they can mount a multitude of torpedoes to either balance out or double down on someones build attributes, although 2 torpedoes usually isn't enough.

### Disadvantages

1. The Ohio is the least durable submarines of all of tier 3 submarines even after upgrades.
2. Vulnerable against aircraft and almost all ASW hardware.

## Trivia

The ship's original cost was 20 million dollars. This was increased to 21,500,000 dollars recently.