USS Pittsburgh (SSN-720)

USS Pittsburgh (SSN-720) is a Los Angeles-class submarine and is the fourth ship of the United States Navy to be named for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

For other ships with the same name, see USS Pittsburgh.

USS Pittsburgh (SSN-720)
USS Pittsburgh at a dockside ceremony in 1985.
History
United States
Name: USS Pittsburgh
Namesake: The City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Awarded: 16 April 1979
Builder: General Dynamics Electric Boat
Laid down: 15 April 1983
Launched: 8 December 1984
Commissioned: 23 November 1985
Decommissioned: 15 April 2020
Out of service: 6 August 2019
Homeport: Groton, Connecticut
Motto: Heart of Steel
Status: Decommissioned
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type: Los Angeles-class submarine
Displacement:
  • 5,802 long tons (5,895 t) light
  • 6,193 long tons (6,292 t) full
  • 391 long tons (397 t) dead
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
Speed:
  • Surfaced:20 knots (23 mph; 37 km/h)
  • Submerged: +20 knots (23 mph; 37 km/h) (official)
Complement: 12 officers, 98 men
Sensors and
processing systems:		 BQQ-5 passive sonar, BQS-15 detecting and ranging sonar, WLR-8 fire control radar receiver, WLR-9 acoustic receiver for detection of active search sonar and acoustic homing torpedoes, BRD-7 radio direction finder
Armament: 4 × 21 in (533 mm) bow tubes, 10 Mk48 ADCAP torpedo reloads, Tomahawk land attack missile block 3 SLCM range 1,700 nautical miles (3,100 km), Harpoon anti–surface ship missile range 70 nautical miles (130 km), mine laying Mk67 mobile Mk60 captor mines

History
USS Pittsburgh demonstrates an emergency main ballast tank blow in 1991.

The contract to build Pittsburgh was awarded to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut on 16 April 1979, and her keel was laid down on 15 April 1983. She was launched on 8 December 1984, sponsored by Dr. Carol Sawyer, and commissioned on 23 November 1985.

On 2 April 1991 Pittsburgh and Louisville conducted submarine-launched Tomahawk missile attacks against Iraq during Operation Desert Storm.[1]

USS Pittsburgh departed in October 2002 to deploy in the Mediterranean Sea. There, she again fired Tomahawk missiles into Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom.[2] She returned from that deployment on 27 April 2003.

On 25 February 2019, Pittsburgh returned to her homeport at Naval Submarine Base New London after completion of her final deployment.[3] The submarine arrived at Bremerton, Washington on 28 May 2019, for a months-long inactivation and decommissioning process.[4]

Pittsburgh was officially inactivated on 17 January 2020 at the Undersea Warfare Museum in Keyport, Washington, and now awaits the Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington. She was later decommissioned 15 April 2020 and crew released, 37 years to the day of her keel laid down. Pittsburgh's final Captain was Cmdr. Jason Deichler, a native of Carnegie, Pennsylvania, a suburb of the City of Pittsburgh.

References
  1. "Gulf War: April 1991." US Navy.
  2. Affairs, This story was written by Journalist 1st Class (SW/AW) Mark A. Savage, Commander Navy Region Northeast Public. "Groton-Based Submarines Return to SUBASE After Deployments, Combat". Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  3. "USS Pittsburgh (SSN 720) Returns from Final Deployment". Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. 25 February 2019. Retrieved 26 February 2019.
  4. "USS Pittsburgh (SSN 720) Arrives in Bremerton for Decommissioning". United States Navy. 30 May 2019. NNS190530-10. Retrieved 30 May 2019.

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


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