Naval Submarine Base New London

Naval Submarine Base New London sits along the Thames River in Groton, Connecticut, and carries the distinction of being the Navy's first submarine base, established in 1915 when four submarines and the tender Ozark arrived in Groton.

The base is easily reached from Interstate 95, and the closest major airports are Bradley International Airport in Hartford and T.F. Green Airport in Providence, each roughly an hour away, with Boston Logan and New York's JFK and LaGuardia about two hours out.

Anyone arriving on official orders should check with Navy Gateway Inns & Suites, now called the Navy Inn, in Building 429 before booking off-base lodging; if the Inn is full, staff can issue a Certificate of Non-Availability needed to authorize alternate lodging. Rooms here typically come with a private bath, cable TV, a Keurig, and a micro-fridge.

The Navy Lodge New London, at 2 Proteus Avenue, is a separate option that gives first priority to Navy and Marine Corps families on PCS orders and can sleep up to five people per unit, with kitchenettes and up to two pets allowed per reservation. It's open year-round and reservations should still be verified against Navy Gateway Inns & Suites availability first.

Family housing at SUBASE New London is fully privatized under the Military Housing Privatization Initiative and managed by Beacon Point Homes (formerly Balfour Beatty), spread across eight distinct neighborhoods of duplexes, quadruplexes, and some single-family homes just outside the gates in the Groton area.

Wait times for privatized housing vary considerably by rank and bedroom size; recent estimates showed junior enlisted families waiting one to three months for a 2-3 bedroom unit, while senior personnel seeking larger 4-bedroom homes could wait five to seven months.

Children living in privatized base housing attend the Groton School District, but families living elsewhere should confirm their local school district based on their home address.

The Navy Child Development Center on Highland Avenue in Groton offers full-day care for children ages 6 weeks to 6 years on weekdays, and is NAEYC-accredited. Families should also know the Coast Guard Academy across the river operates its own Child Development Center in New London as another local option.

The Naval Branch Health Clinic Groton, on Wahoo Avenue, is the primary care hub for active-duty families, organizing patients into color-coded care teams of nurses, nurse practitioners, and physicians.

Dental care is available through the Naval Branch Dental Clinic in Building 575, next to the main clinic building, offering routine and specialty services along with overseas screening appointments for family members. For urgent needs after hours, patients can reach on-call dental staff through the command duty officer line.

Because TRICARE Select users here can see any authorized civilian provider without a referral, and the Groton/New London area has multiple private hospitals and specialty clinics, families with specialty needs are not limited strictly to the on-base clinic.

The Housing Service Center in Building 83 functions as a broad support office beyond just housing placement, offering lease reviews, help with landlord disputes, and referrals for those pursuing off-base rentals, which is useful given how tight the local rental market can run.

New arrivals should expect the New London-Groton area's cost of living to run well above the national average, driven mostly by housing costs, so those budgeting for a longer TDY or PCS should plan for higher rents and grocery costs than many other duty stations.