The last Flight II Los Angeles-class submarine in service with the U.S. Navy is being decommissioned after more than three decades of service.
USS Newport News has left Submarine Base New London in Groton, Connecticut, for the final time, as per a recent public statement. It was pictured sailing down the Thames River heading for decommissioning earlier this month.
In total, 62 Los Angeles-class submarines have been built for the U.S. Navy, starting in 1972 and divided into three flights; the last boat in the class, USS Cheyenne, was commissioned in 1996. Now, only Flight III boats remain in active service.
Los Angeles-class boats still make up about half the fleet’s fast attack submarines; they have been succeeded by the short-lived Seawolf class and latterly the Virginia-class boats.
The Flight III Los-Angeles-class boats share the 12-cell Vertical Launch Tubes for Tomahawk cruise missiles fitted to their immediate predecessors. They are also quieter, have upgraded sensors, and retractable bow-mounted diving planes.
All American nuclear submarines are decommissioned under the Ship-Submarine Recycling Program (SRP) ultimately carried out at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNS) in Bremerton, Washington.
On site, workers will remove spent nuclear fuel, while the powerplant itself will be sent to the Naval Reactors Facility in Idaho for processing.
The reactor compartment will be sealed, and stored at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington State, a 580-square-mile former nuclear production complex first established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project.
- You can read more details about the USS Newport News’s last journey on the U.S. Navy’s Facebook page