A sea change is coming to the fleet at Pearl Harbor.

At least three surface ships are being retired, a new destroyer named after a Hawaii-based SEAL commando is on its way, a destroyer from San Diego will be traded for one here in a "hull swap," and more of the Navy’s latest-generation Virginia-class attack subs will be sent to Hawaii.

The 11-ship surface fleet will shrink, while the 19-sub fleet will grow. At least that is how plans look at the moment, officials said.

Bruce Smith, a retired Navy captain and former chief of staff for the U.S. Pacific Fleet submarine force, said the changes are a sign of the new national defense policy emphasizing Asia and the Pacific being put into action.

The Navy is retiring older ships, emphasizing aircraft carriers, ballistic missile defense destroyers, Virginia-class submarines and littoral combat ships, and shifting 60 percent of its fleet to the Pacific — a departure from the 50-50 Atlantic and Pacific split — with additional chess-board moves to come.

"If you look at this sort of changing of the guard, this is the renewal," said Smith, now site manager for HSI Electric Boat in Honolulu, which does work for the Navy and the marine commercial sector. "It’s the 21st-century posture that we’re going to."

Hawaii remains "a critical component of the new defense strategy, with our combatant ships and submarines stationed in Pearl Harbor playing a significant role for the U.S. Pacific Command," said U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye.

"As we wind down from a decade spent fighting two wars, we must strategically change our mix of aircraft, ships and submarines to account for a renewed focus on the Asia-Pacific region," he said in an email.

Inouye added: "Whether it is surface ships, submarines, or additional Marines, I continue to work closely with senior officials in the Department of Defense and in a bipartisan fashion with my colleagues in the Congress to ensure that Hawaii has the capacity and capabilities stationed here to react to any scenario in the Pacific."

The first of the changes comes Oct. 26 with a decommissioning ceremony for the Pearl Harbor frigate Crommelin, which is destined for sale to a foreign country after 30 years of service, the Navy said.

The Navy’s only other frigate at Pearl Harbor, the Reuben James, is scheduled to be inactivated Aug. 30. It, too, will be sold to a foreign navy.

The Navy is replacing many of its 445-foot frigates, as well as some mine hunters, with littoral combat ships that can operate in near-shore waters.

Crommelin crew members have been offloading operational gear in anticipation of the inactivation.

"Certain things like the ship’s commissioning plaque and the ship’s bell are being sent to Washington, D.C., to be saved for posterity," Lt. j.g. Blaise Cummo, the ship’s navigator, said in a recent Navy news story.

In mid- to late November, Pearl Harbor will welcome the new destroyer, the USS Michael Murphy, named after the SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1 lieutenant and Medal of Honor recipient who died high in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan in 2005 as part of a four-man team that battled more than 50 enemy fighters.

Intent on making contact with headquarters, a wounded Murphy, 29, disregarding his own safety, moved into the open to get a better position to transmit a call for help for his men — and made himself more of a target in the process.

At one point he was shot in the back and dropped the transmitter, but he retrieved it, completed the call, and continued fighting back. Murphy posthumously received the first Medal of Honor from the Afghanistan war.

Five Pearl Harbor SEALs were killed in the operation — one other on the mission with Murphy and three others in the crash of a rescue helicopter hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

The 510-foot guided missile destroyer named for Murphy was commissioned Oct. 6 in New York City and made its first port call Tuesday in Barbados on the way to its new home port in Hawaii.

Bob McDermott, executive director of the Navy League of the United States, Honolulu Council, said the organization hopes to be part of a welcoming ceremony for the USS Michael Murphy.

"We stand by ready to help," he said.

McDermott said consideration was given to commissioning the vessel in Pearl Harbor, but Murphy was from New York and his family preferred the East Coast for the ceremony.

Early next year, the Navy will send the Pearl Harbor destroyer Russell to San Diego and the crew will return about five weeks later on the destroyer Halsey in what’s known as a "hull swap," officials said.

The Navy decided to shift the "midlife upgrade" on the Russell, previously planned for 2013 at Pearl Harbor, to the West Coast to save $35 million — but keep the operational capability back at Pearl with the Halsey.

The work would have maxed out the surface ship workforce here, requiring workers to be flown in from the mainland to help, officials said.

Two Pearl Harbor cruisers — the Chosin and Port Royal — also were scheduled for inactivation, with the Port Royal going on March 31, and the Chosin in 2014.

After congressional pressure to keep ships in service longer, however, the Navy said last month that the Port Royal and three other cruisers based elsewhere would be kept on duty for an undetermined length of time.

Navy plans in the next two years also call for an increase in the number of submarines based at Pearl Harbor or coming for shipyard work, Inouye’s office said in March.

Among the additions planned for Pearl Harbor are two more Virginia-class attack submarines — one this fiscal year and another in 2014, Ino­uye’s office said.