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NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive

Contributed by Mike Smolinski

Radio Call Sign: November - Yankee - Hotel - Romeo

Lafayette (SSBN-616)

Lafayette Class Ballistic Missile Submarine: Laid down, 17 January 1961, at the Electric Boat Div. of General Dynamics, Corp., Groton, CT.; Launched, 8 May 1962; Commissioned, USS Lafayette (SSBN-616), 23 April 1963; Decommissioned, and struck from the Naval Register, 12 August 1991; Final Disposition, disposed of through the Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, WA., 25 February 1992.

Specifications: Displacement, Surfaced: 7,250 t., Submerged: 8,250 t.; Length 425' ; Beam 33'; Draft 32'; Speed, Surfaced/Submerged 20+ kts; Complement 138; Test depth 1,300'; Armament, 16 Polaris missile tubes, four 21" torpedo tubes; Propulsion, S5W Pressurized Water Nuclear Reactor, two geared turbines at 15,000 shp, one propeller.

Size	Image Description	Source
88k	Valley Forge - Washington & Lafayette. Winter 1777-78. copy of engraving by H. B. Hall after Alonzo Chappel. (George Washington Bicentennial Commission).	NARA FILE #: 148-GW-189.USN photo # HD-SN-99-01695, from the Department of Defense Still Media Collection, courtesy of dodmedia.osd.mil.
55k	First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, attired in a chartreuse Oleg Cassini coat and matching Breton hat, breaks the ceremonial bottle of champagne on a skeg beneath the bow of Lafayette (SSBN-616) during the launching ceremony at Groton on 8 May 1962, while Capt. Tazewell T. Shepard, Jr., (Naval Aide to the President) and Roger Lewis, President and Chief Executive Officer of General Dynamics Corp., look on. Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy, the wife of President John F. Kennedy, who said first in English, "I christen thee Lafayette", and then, in French, "Je te baptise Lafayette".	USN photo # BN 1061173 courtesy of history.navy.mil & submitted by Bill Gonyo.
194k	Dock workers adorned with hard hats watch as the Lafayette's (SSBN-616) officers salute the national ensign as she slides down the launching ramp at the Electric Boat Div. of General Dynamics, Corp., Groton, CT., 8 May 1962.	USN photo courtesy of pelicanharborsubvets.com.
112k	Lafayette (SSBN-616) sliding down the building ways at the Elrctric Boat yard moments after being christened by Mrs. John F. Kennedy.	General Dynamics/Electric Boat photo from The American Submarine, by Norman Polmar, submitted by Robert Hurst. Photo added 05/07/08.
106k	Commemorative postal cover issued on the occasion of the Lafayette's (SSBN-616) launching at the Electric Boat Div. of General Dynamics, Corp., Groton, CT., 8 May 1962.	Courtesy of Jack Treutle.
25k	Lafayette (SSBN-616), port side view underway, shown during her initial sea trials February 24-26, 1963.	Courtesy of Electric Boat.
62k	Lafayette (SSBN-616) on sea trials in the Atlantic Ocean was escorted by three SH-3A Sea King Helicopters from Helicopter Antisubmarine Squadron 9 (HS-9).	NARA photo.
58k	Commemorative postal cover issued on the occasion of the first nuclear submarine to visit Rota, Spain. Lafayette (SSBN-616) visited there on 1 March 1964.	Courtesy of Jack Treutle.
75k	Lafayette (SSBN-616) off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia during Dec. 1968. The deck officer and lookout crew are manning the sail area as the sub makes it way through the sea at 15 knots.	U.S. Navy Photo courtesy of Robert Hall. Photo i.d. courtesy of Phil Tuckey.
201k	Lafayette (SSBN-616) is pictured here undergoing an extended refit before patrol in 1969 while in the floating dry dock at Holy Loch, Scotland.	US Navy Photo and text submitted by Roy Grossinger, former ELT.
57k	The Lafayette (SSBN-616) with bunting attached to her bow. The date is 6 March 1981 and the occasion is *Lafayette* being the first vessel to enter the brand new Dry Dock 4 at Newport News Shipbuilding to begin a refueling overhaul.	U.S. Navy Photo courtesy of dr-self.com & submitted by Bill Gonyo. Photo i.d. courtesy of Philip D. Tuckey.
506k	A Poseidon C-3 (UGM-73A) missile is launched from the nuclear-powered strategic missile submarine Lafayette (SSBN-616) on 2 Sep 1983.	USN photo # DF-SC-84-08113 & text from the Department of Defense Still Media Collection, courtesy of dodmedia.osd.mil
563k	A starboard bow view of the nuclear-powered strategic missile submarine Lafayette (SSBN-616) underway, 1 Feb 1991.	USN photo # DN-ST-91-05221 by PH2 Klenkefus, from the Department of Defense Still Media Collection, courtesy of dodmedia.osd.mil.
94k	Lafayette (SSBN-616), underway, date and place unknown.	US Navy Photo.
40k	Lafayette (SSBN-616), underway, date and place unknown.	US Navy Photo courtesy of the American Federation of Scientists (fas.org).
134k	The sun goes down on the Lafayette (SSBN-616) in this undated photo	Official US Navy photo courtesy of Wendell Royce McLaughlin Jr.
564k	An overhead bow view of the nuclear-powered strategic missile submarine Lafayette (SSBN-616) underway off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii on 1 Feb 1991.	Official U.S. Navy Photograph # DN-ST-91-05229 from the Department of Defense Still Media Collection, courtesy of dodmedia.osd.mil & submitted by Bill Gonyo.
625k	An aerial view of four Lafayette class (SSBN-616) nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines in the early stages of being scrapped out in a graving dock at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Washington, 17 May 1993. The Lafayette (SSBN-616) & Ulysses S. Grant (SSBN-631) are most likely the two on the port side. They were the first two boats of this class to be decommissioned. The next two boats to be decommissioned were the John Adams (SSBN-620) & Tecumseh (SSBN-628), and they might be the two on the starboard side.	USN photo # DN-ST-95-01860 by Calvin Larsen, from the Department of Defense Still Media Collection, courtesy of dodmedia.osd.mil.
83k	Trench 94, Hanford Site, Washington, 1994. Hull sections containing defueled reactor compartments of decommissioned nuclear-powered submarines are put in disposal trenches. Once full, the trench will be filled with dirt and buried. The compartments are expected to retain their integrity for more than 600 years.	USN photo & partial text courtesy of home.flash.net/~tomj/tunny/chop/rx. & submitted by Jack Treutle.
569k	Sealed reactor compartments are shipped by barge out of Puget Sound Naval Base down the coast and along the Columbia River to the port of Benton. There the radioactively-contaminated hull sections are transferred to special multiwheeled high-load trailers for transport to the Hanford Reservation in Washington State. Pictured below is the burial ground for spent fuel of the following 77 nuclear reactor submarines as of March 2003: Patrick Henry (SSBN-599), Snook (SSN-592), George Washington (SSBN-598), Scamp (SSN-588), Robert E. Lee (SSBN-601), Thomas Jefferson (SSBN-618), Theodore Roosevelt (SSBN-600), Dace (SSN-607), John Adams (SSBN-620), Abraham Lincoln (SSBN-602), Barb (SSN-596), Ethan Allen (SSBN-608), Thomas A. Edison (SSBN-610), Pollack (SSN-603), Glenard P. Lipscomb (SSN-685), James Monroe (SSBN-622), Skipjack (SS-585), Nathan Hale (SSBN-623), Plunger (SSN-595), Shark (SSN-591), Lafayette (SSBN-616), Sam Houston (SSBN-609), Jack (SSN-605), Haddo (SSN-604), Tinosa (SSN-606), Guardfish (SSN-612), Permit (SSN-594), Queenfish (SSN-651), Ulysses S. Grant (SSBN-631), John Marshall (SSBN-611), George C. Marshall (SSBN-654), Flasher (SSN-613), Guitarro (SSN-665), Alexander Hamilton (SSBN-617), George Washington Carver (SSBN-656), Tecumseh (SSBN-628), Halibut (SSGN-587), Will Rogers (SSBN-659), Henry L. Stimson (SSBN-655), Daniel Boone (SSBN-629), Greenling (SSN-614), John C. Calhoun (SSBN-630), Casimir Pulaski (SSBN-633), Skate (SSN-578), Sargo (SSN-583), Francis Scott Key (SSBN-657), Sturgeon (SSN-637), Benjamin Franklin (SSBN-640), Swordfish (SSN-579), Seadragon (SSN-584), Stonewall Jackson (SSBN-634), Simon Bolivar (SSBN-641), Hammerhead (SSN-663), Mariano G. Vallejo (SSBN-658) , Tullibee (SSN-597), Lewis & Clark (SSBN-644), Pargo (SSN-650), Seahorse (SSN-669), Gurnard (SSN-662), Flying Fish (SSN-673), Gato (SSN-615), Puffer (SSN-652), Seawolf (SSN-575), Baton Rouge (SSN-689), Bergall (SSN-667), Whale (SSN-638), Henry Clay (SSBN-625), James Madison (SSBN-627), Finback (SSN-670), Spadefish (SSN-668), Sunfish (SSN-649), George Bancroft (SSBN-643), Grayling (SSN-646), Pintado (SSN-672), Tunny (SSN-682), Archerfish (SSN-678), & Woodrow Wilson (SSBN-624).	USN photo & partial text courtesy of home.flash.net/~tomj/tunny/chop/rx. & submitted by Jack Treutle.