USS Kamehameha (SSBN-642)

Immersed 8250 ts

129.5 m

10.1 m

9.6 m

13 officers and 107 men

A S5W reactor

25 nodes

4533 -mm torpedo tubes, 16 ICBMs

The USS Kamehameha ( SSN-642/SSBN-642 ) was a nuclear submarine of the Lafayette class and was a member of the subclass of Benjamin Franklin. The boat was a so-called Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear, a submarine designed specifically for the launch of intercontinental ballistic missiles. It was named after King Kamehameha I of Hawaii.

The contract to build the Kamehameha was issued in 1962 to the Naval Shipyard Mare Iceland. There the boat was laid in May 1963, Kiel and ran in January 1965 from the stack. After final finishing, it was put into service in December of this year.

The Kamehameha led a majority of their patrols on nuclear deterrence from the base of Rota in Spain through out.

In July 1992, the Kamehameha was converted to special missions. The missile bays have been disabled, was instead the boat United States Navy SEALs in dry deck shelters (DDS ) transport and secretly suspend and resume. For the classification of the boat on SSN was changed.

In 2002 the boat was painted as the last of his class from active service. With a service life of 37 years, the Kamehameha holds the record for the longest period of service of all nuclear submarines of the Navy. By 2003, Kamehameha in the Ship- Submarine Recycling Program at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard has been canceled. Some parts like the hydroplane and the periscope have been preserved and are exhibited today.