The Navy will be moving additional nuclear attack submarines to Pearl Harbor, San Diego and Washington state as part of a redistribution of submarine forces from the Atlantic to the Pacific, it was announced yesterday.

The shift, which will bring six additional subs to the Pacific and will mean 18 subs at Pearl Harbor compared with 17 now, is the first sign of big changes ahead for the distribution of Navy assets, predicted Loren Thompson, a military expert at the Lexington Institute in Virginia.

"I think over time, we will see most of the naval fleet move to the Pacific Basin," Thompson said.

That includes an aircraft carrier strike group for Pearl Harbor, a move seen as too costly given current defense-budget constraints, but that is "almost inevitable," Thompson said.

The submarine-basing plan is expected to bring to Hawai'i more than one of the Navy's new Virginia-class attack submarines, which have the capability to operate in shallow waters and drop off Navy commandos.

"I think the bottom line here is the shift of submarines to the Pacific is just the beginning of a broader move by the Navy fleet," Thompson said.