USS Cheyenne (SSN-773), the last , is the third ship of the
United States NavyThe United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
to be named for
Cheyenne, WyomingCheyenne is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Laramie County. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Laramie County. The population is 59,466 at the 2010 census. Cheyenne is the...
. The contract to build her was awarded to
Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock CompanyNewport News Shipbuilding , originally Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company , was the largest privately-owned shipyard in the United States prior to being purchased by Northrop Grumman in 2001...
in
Newport News, VirginiaNewport News is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia. It is at the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River extending southeast from Skiffe's Creek along many miles of waterfront to the river's mouth at Newport News...
on 28 November 1989 and her keel was laid down on 6 July 1992. She was
launchedThe ceremonies involved in naming and launching naval ships are based in traditions thousands of years old.-Methods of launch:There are three principal methods of conveying a new ship from building site to water, only two of which are called "launching." The oldest, most familiar, and most widely...
on 16 April 1995 sponsored by Mrs. Ann Simpson, wife of Wyoming Senator
Alan K. SimpsonAlan Kooi Simpson is an American politician who served from 1979 to 1997 as a United States Senator from Wyoming as a member of the Republican Party. His father, Milward L. Simpson, was also a member of the U.S...
, and
commissionedShip commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service, and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to the placing of a warship in active duty with its country's military...
on 13 September 1996, with Commander Peter H. Ozimik in command.
Cheyenne transferred to her homeport of
Pearl HarborPearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
,
HawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, in 1998.
Cheyenne has served as a trials platform for flat-screen, interoperative
sonarSonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...
displays based on commercially-available equipment.
Cheyenne was the first ship to launch Tomahawk missiles in
Operation Iraqi FreedomThe 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
under the command of CDR Charles Doty.
Cheyenne would go on to successfully launch her entire complement of Tomahawks, earning a "
clean sweepA "clean sweep" for a naval vessel refers to having "swept the enemy from the seas," a completely successful mission. It is traditionally indicated byhanging a broom from a mast or lashing it to the periscope of a submarine.-History:...
" for combat actions in the final three months of a nine-month
deploymentMilitary deployment is the movement of armed forces and their logistical support infrastructure around the world.-United States:The United States Military defines the term as follows:...
. This dubbed her "First To Strike". Her motto is "Ride the Legend."
USS
Cheyenne was the final
Los Angeles class submarine built by Newport News Shipyards. Following the construction of the USS
Cheyenne, Newport News began preparation for construction of the .
In fiction
Cheyenne is the primary subject of the book
SSN by
Tom ClancyThomas Leo "Tom" Clancy, Jr. is an American author, best known for his technically detailed espionage, military science, and techno thriller storylines set during and in the aftermath of the Cold War, along with video games on which he did not work, but which bear his name for licensing and...
, battling the
People's Liberation Army NavyThe People's Liberation Army Navy is the naval branch of the People's Liberation Army , the military of the People's Republic of China. Until the early 1990s, the navy performed a subordinate role to the PLA Land Forces. Since then, it has undergone rapid modernisation...
in a fictional war over the
Spratly IslandsThe Spratly Islands are a group of more than 750 reefs, islets, atolls, cays and islands in the South China Sea. The archipelago lies off the coasts of the Philippines and Malaysia , about one third of the way from there to southern Vietnam. They comprise less than four square kilometers of land...
. It is also featured in the video game by Tom Clancy called SSN.
In the technothriller novel
Quicksilver by
Judith and Garfield Reeves-StevensJudith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens are a prolific husband and wife writing team, known mainly for their involvement with the Star Trek franchise. They have written several books both within and outside of Star Trek, and acted as executive story editors and co-producers on the fourth season of the...
, the
Cheyenne was ordered to fire a
Tomahawk TLAMThe Tomahawk is a long-range, all-weather, subsonic cruise missile. Introduced by General Dynamics in the 1970s, it was designed as a medium- to long-range, low-altitude missile that could be launched from a surface platform. It has been improved several times and, by way of corporate divestitures...
Block Four cruise missile, under manual control of Weapons Officer Lt. Miken Marano, at the River Entrance of
the PentagonThe Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
.
In "To the Death" by Patrick Robinson, the Cheyenne is tasked with shadowing an Iranian
KiloThe Kilo class is the NATO reporting name for a naval diesel-electric submarine that is made in Russia. The original version of the vessels were designated Project 877 Paltus in Russia. There is also a more advanced version, designated as Improved Kilo in the west, and Project 636 Varshavyanka in...
on a path through the
Mediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
.
External links