USS Dallas (SSN-700)

Dallas carrying a Dry Deck Shelter in 2004.
History
United States
Name: USS Dallas
Namesake: the city of Dallas, Texas
Awarded: 31 January 1973
Builder: General Dynamics Corporation
Laid down: 9 October 1976
Launched: 28 April 1979
Commissioned: 18 July 1981
Decommissioned: 4 April 2018[1]
Out of service: 22 May 2017
Homeport: Groton, Connecticut
Motto: First in Harm's Way, The Hunt Is On (unofficial)
Status: decommissioned
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type: Los Angeles-class submarine
Displacement: 6,900 tons
Length: 110.3 m (361 ft 11 in)
Beam: 10 m (32 ft 10 in)
Draft: 9.4 m (30 ft 10 in)
Propulsion: S6G nuclear reactor
Complement: 127
Armament: 4 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes

USS Dallas (SSN-700) is a Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarine of the United States Navy. She is the Navy's second vessel of that name, and the first to be named after the city of Dallas, Texas, although another two ships were scheduled but never completed. After 36 years of commissioned service, the boat is at its end-of-life and now stationed at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for inactivation, decommissioning and eventual recycling.[2] Inactivation occurred on December 5, 2017, at Naval Kitsap-Bangor.[3] The occasion marked the crew's final public event before the submarine is officially decommissioned in the controlled industrial area (CIA) at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNS) in Bremerton, Washington, sometime in early 2018.

Service history

The contract to build Dallas was awarded to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut on 31 October 1973 and her keel was laid down on 9 October 1976. She was launched on 28 April 1979 sponsored by Mrs. Rita Crocker Clements, wife of former Deputy Secretary of Defence William P. Clements, Jr., and commissioned on 18 July 1981, with Captain Donald R. Ferrier in command. Dallas was the first submarine of the Los Angeles class to be originally built with an all-digital fire control (tracking and weapon) system and sonar system.

After commissioning, Dallas was attached to Submarine Development Squadron 12, New London, Connecticut, where she was involved in research and development projects. Since September 1988, Dallas has been a member of Submarine Squadron 2, New London, Connecticut. During her time with Squadron 2, she completed the first ever Depot Modernization Period and various overseas deployments.

Dallas completed an Engineered Refueling Overhaul (ERO) at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine in 1998. The D1G-2 core was replaced with a D2W core. Dallas has had a removable Dry Deck Shelter for over a decade.[4] This large chamber, fitted aft of the sail, has an array of air, water and hydraulic systems that allow Dallas to employ the latest submarine arsenal: the Swimmer Delivery Vehicle — a highly mobile and virtually undetectable means of carrying out special forces missions.

Dallas has completed one deployment to the Indian Ocean, four Mediterranean Sea deployments, two Persian Gulf deployments, and seven deployments to the North Atlantic.

On 27 August 1981 Dallas damaged her lower rudder when she ran aground while approaching the Atlantic Underwater Test and Evaluation Center site at Andros Island, Bahamas. The submarine worked herself free after several hours and returned on the surface to New London, Connecticut, for repairs.

Museum and delayed inactivation

Dallas returning from her 2013 deployment.

Naval Sea Systems Command, the city of Dallas and the Dallas Navy League began discussions in 2008 for items from the boat in support of a memorial. These will become available during the actual vessel recycling phase, which is scheduled for 2023 for Dallas.[5]

Originally, it was planned to decommission Dallas in September 2014.[6] In May 2013 officials with the city of Dallas, Texas announced a plan to create a maritime museum more than 250 miles (400 km) from the nearest body of salt water. Mayor Mike Rawlings and members of a foundation formed to create the new facility revealed one of their goals is to acquire and display Dallas next to a 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m2) museum building.

In 2013 the US Navy announced that the plan to retire Dallas had been extended to Fiscal Year 2017, and that instead USS Norfolk would begin inactivation in early 2015. The U.S. Navy projected to save $10 million in Pre-Inactivation Restricted Availability (PIRA) costs as a result of the change.[7]

The Dallas Maritime Museum, to be located along the banks of the Trinity River (Texas), is planned to contain some components of the original boat, such as its sail, although there is some discussion about moving the entire submarine to the museum if the money can be raised.[8]

Most recently, the Dallas Navy League had planned to host the 7-10 April 2017 inactivation ceremony to take place in Galveston, TX. The Navy League subsequently reported that this public relations event was cancelled by the U.S. Navy, citing "budgetary constraints" while operating under a continuing resolution. Additionally, costs to the City of Dallas and/or the U.S. Navy from leasing back already-allocated pier space were judged as excessive. The requirement to compensate commercial shipping companies for their already-reserved commercial pier space resulted from the Navy's on-again/off-again planning cycle for the inactivation ceremony, which ultimately was (re-)cancelled.

Awards

Dallas received two Meritorious Unit Commendations, two Navy Unit Commendations and was awarded the Battle Efficiency E for FY 1986, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1999, 2000 and 2013. Further recognition includes nomination for the 1993 Battenberg Cup as the best all-around ship in the fleet and the 1999 Engineering "E" and Medical "M".

In fiction

Dallas features prominently in the Tom Clancy novel The Hunt for Red October and its film adaptation.

The ship is used in a more minor role in several other Clancy books; as such, the actual ship's crew adopted the film's tagline "The Hunt Is On" as an unofficial ship's motto. For the filming in the Pacific Ocean, USS Houston was the primary submarine used. USS Louisville was used in two scenes: the drydock scene at the fictional "Patuxent, Maryland" graving dock, and the scene where Jack Ryan is attempting to board Dallas. According to coverage of the filming in Sea Classics magazine, one USS Dallas sailor took leave, from Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, to fly to California to participate in the filming.

USS Dallas is featured along with her sister boat USS Charlotte in the John Ringo novel Under A Graveyard Sky.

The Dallas appeared in the Stargate SG-1 episode Small Victories in which it torpedoes a Foxtrot-class submarine codenamed 'Blackbird' whose crew had all been killed by an Alien species of self replicating machines known as Replicators.

The submarine is also shown briefly alongside the USS Chicago in the video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It only appears in the mission "The Only Easy Day... Was Yesterday," where the player takes the role of British special forces departing the submerged submarines.

References

  1. ↑ "USS Dallas Decommissions After 38 Years of Service" (Press release). United States Navy. 9 April 2018. NNS180409-30. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  2. ↑ http://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/local/2017/05/22/102018676/
  3. ↑ Affairs, From Commander, Submarine Group 9 Public. "Dallas holds inactivation ceremony after 36 years of service". The Dolphin. Retrieved 2018-01-05.
  4. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 21 November 2013. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
  5. ↑ http://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/local/2017/05/22/102018676/
  6. ↑ "7 frigates on list of FY '14 decommissionings
  7. ↑ "Navy Swaps Dallas, Norfolk Inactivation Dates" (Press release). U.S. Navy. 30 May 2014. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
  8. ↑ "Could the Nuclear Submarine USS Dallas Finally Come to Dallas?". D Magazine. Retrieved 2018-01-05.

This article includes information collected from the public domain sources Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships and Naval Vessel Register.

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