USS Cheyenne (SSN-773), the last , was the third ship of the
United States NavyThe United States Navy is the sea branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. As of 31 December 2008, the U.S. Navy had about 331,682 personnel on active duty and 124,000 in the Navy Reserve. It operates 283 ships in active service and more than...
to be named for
Cheyenne, WyomingCheyenne is the capital and largest 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 was 53,011 at the 2000 census...
. The contract to build her was awarded to
Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock CompanyNorthrop Grumman Shipbuilding Newport News , formerly called Northrop Grumman Newport News or 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 in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. It is at the south-western 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 Point on the...
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 a Republican politician who served from 1979 to 1997 as a United States senator from Wyoming. 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 is a 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 state made up entirely of islands. It is located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia. The state was admitted to the Union on August...
, 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. There are two kinds of sonar: active and passive. Sonar may be used as a means of acoustic location and of measurement of the echo characteristics of "targets" in the water...
displays based on commercially-available equipment.
Cheyenne was the first ship to launch Tomahawk missiles in
Operation Iraqi FreedomThe 2003 invasion of Iraq, was led by the United States, backed by British forces and smaller contingents from Australia, Denmark, Poland and Spain. Four countries participated with troops during the initial invasion phase, which lasted from March 20 to May 1...
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. In most of the world's navies, a deployment designates an extended period of duty at sea...
. This dubbed her "First To Strike".
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 Clancy Jr. is an American author, best known for his technically detailed espionage and military science storylines set during and in the aftermath of the Cold War and his video games. His name is also a brand for similar movie scripts written by ghost writers and many series of...
, 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...
in a fictional war over the
Spratly IslandsThe Spratly Islands are a group of more than 650 reefs, islets, atolls, cays and islands in the South China Sea between the Philippines, China, Malaysia and Vietnam. They comprise less than five square kilometers of land area, spread over more than 400,000 square kilometers of sea...
. 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 without 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 Land Attack Missile 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 submerged submarine. It has been improved several times and, by way of...
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, 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....
.
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 military 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...
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 Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it...
.
External links