USS North Carolina (SSN 777)

USS NORTH CAROLINA History:

In September 1998, the US Navy awarded a contract to Northrop Grumman Newport News Shipbuilding to build a fourth VIRGINIA-class attack submarine, to be named USS NORTH CAROLINA in honor of the state. Construction took place at Newport News, Virginia, within the joint VIRGINIA-class industrial arrangement shared with General Dynamics Electric Boat, reflecting the Navy's intent to sustain two nuclear-shipyards and to field a class of multi-mission submarines optimized for coastal as well as deep-water operations. The keel of NORTH CAROLINA was laid on May 22, 2004, at Newport News, in a ceremony attended by state representatives and naval leadership. Linda Bowman, wife of former Director, Naval Nuclear Propulsion Admiral Frank "Skip" Bowman, was named ship's sponsor and would remain closely associated with the boat through construction, trials and commissioning.

The submarine's hull and systems took shape over the following years, and on April 21, 2007, NORTH CAROLINA was christened at Newport News. She entered the water for the first time when she was launched on May 5, 2007. In December 2007, the pre-commissioning unit conducted initial sea trials off the U.S. East Coast. According to the builder, the submarine completed three days of trials - including high-speed surface and submerged runs and initial deep dives - without major deficiencies, returning to the shipyard flying a broom lashed to the sail to symbolize a "clean sweep" of trial objectives. These trials confirmed the performance of the new bow-mounted sonar array, photonics masts and combat system that distinguished the VIRGINIA class from earlier LOS ANGELES-class boats.

After fitting out and further testing, NORTH CAROLINA was accepted into Navy service in early 2008 and formally commissioned on May 3, 2008, in Wilmington, North Carolina. The ceremony linked the new submarine with earlier ships of the name: teak from the deck of the World War II battleship USS NORTH CAROLINA (BB 55) was inlaid in parts of the submarine's deck, and silver from the battleship's service was incorporated into her wardroom silver. The new boat adopted the motto "PRIMUS IN PROELIO" ("First in Fight") and the informal nickname "Tarheel Boat", reflecting both the state connection and the sponsor's influence.

Initially assigned to the Atlantic Fleet, NORTH CAROLINA was homeported at Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Connecticut, where she joined the community of attack submarines supporting operations and training in the western Atlantic. Open sources provide only limited detail on NORTH CAROLINA's first years in commission. She is recorded as an Atlantic Fleet unit based at Groton from 2008 until 2010, a period in which newly commissioned submarines typically complete post-shakedown availabilities, crew work-ups and tactical training in preparation for deployment. Publicly available material focuses mainly on her status as one of the first four VIRGINIA-class submarines to enter operational service rather than on specific patrols or port visits, but it is clear that she was fully integrated into fleet operations by the end of this period.

In 2010, the Navy decided to increase the number of advanced attack submarines in the Pacific, and NORTH CAROLINA was selected to shift from the Atlantic to the Pacific Fleet. She left Groton on July 22, 2010, beginning a four-month inter-fleet transfer to Hawaii. During this transit the crew used the long voyage to exercise the boat's new combat systems and stealth capabilities under operational conditions, effectively turning the move into an extended series of trials and training events. On November 15, 2010, the submarine arrived at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, where she was welcomed at the submarine piers as the third VIRGINIA-class attack submarine to be homeported in the Pacific theater. From that point forward, NORTH CAROLINA operated as part of the U.S. Pacific Fleet's undersea force, with Pearl Harbor as her homeport.

Following several months of local operations and integration with Pacific Submarine Force command structures, NORTH CAROLINA undertook her first documented deployment to the Western Pacific. Media from late 2011 and 2012 indicate that this initial deployment began in December 2011 and concluded with a return to Pearl Harbor in June 2012. During this period the submarine visited Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan, underscoring the U.S. Navy's close maritime security relationship with Japan and providing an opportunity for crew rest and logistics in a key forward base. The deployment took place against the backdrop of the United States' declared "rebalance" toward the Asia-Pacific region, in which forward-deployed submarines played a growing role in surveillance, deterrence and combined exercises with regional navies.

After returning to Hawaii in mid-2012, NORTH CAROLINA resumed training and maintenance in preparation for a second Western Pacific deployment. By December 2013, she was again at sea on a long deployment from Pearl Harbor to the western Pacific, described in contemporary accounts as her second. Photographic evidence shows the submarine moored at Changi Naval Base in Singapore in April 2014, indicating a port visit to that major regional logistics hub and symbol of U.S.-Singapore defense cooperation. In June 2014, NORTH CAROLINA returned to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam following this Western Pacific cruise. A Navy regional publication recorded her arrival on June 19, 2014, noting it in the context of preparations for that year's Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise. Public sources do not list all of the ports or exercises associated with this second deployment, but the timing and routing underscore the submarine's role in routine forward presence and partnership-building across the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

In September 2015, NORTH CAROLINA once again left Hawaii, this time on what the Navy later identified as her third deployment. On November 5, 2015, she arrived at Fleet Activities Yokosuka, Japan, for a scheduled port visit during this deployment. The Navy reported that the boat was operating in the Western Pacific with a crew of about 135, conducting a wide range of missions and emphasizing the strengthening of ties with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. This third deployment concluded in March 2016. On March 17, 2016, NORTH CAROLINA returned to Pearl Harbor after what the Navy described as a six-month Western Pacific deployment covering more than 36,000 nautical miles. During the cruise the submarine made port calls at Yokosuka, at U.S. Naval Base Guam at Apra Harbor, and at Busan in the Republic of Korea, and took part in multinational and bilateral exercises described as "missions critical to national security". A notable event was a bilateral anti-submarine warfare exercise with the Republic of Korea Navy submarine ROKS KIM JWA-JIN (SS 076), in which NORTH CAROLINA hosted South Korean submarine officers and national officials, including the U.S. ambassador to South Korea and the commander of the Republic of Korea Fleet. The exercise illustrated the submarine's role in honing combined undersea warfare tactics on the Korean Peninsula at a time of continuing tensions with North Korea.

Recognition of the boat's performance during this period came shortly thereafter. In January 2016 the Pacific Submarine Force announced its Battle Efficiency ("Battle E") awards for 2015, naming NORTH CAROLINA, commanded by Commander Gary Montalvo, as the winner for Submarine Squadron 1. The award recognized the boat as the most tactically ready and overall effective unit in its squadron over the preceding year, reflecting her operations and preparations through 2015. Alongside operational tasking, NORTH CAROLINA's crew engaged in community projects in Hawaii. In 2016, sailors from the submarine volunteered at Navy Hale Keiki School near Pearl Harbor, carrying out weekend cleaning and painting over July and August and building an ongoing relationship with the school for future tutoring and cosmetic improvements. A September 2016 base newspaper highlighted the effort, accompanied by photographs of sailors and students together after the work was completed.

The command of the submarine changed hands as she moved from the intensive deployment cycle into a period of maintenance and modernization. On January 20, 2017, NORTH CAROLINA held a change-of-command ceremony at Sharkey Theater on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. Commander Gary Montalvo, who had commanded the boat since June 2014 and led her through multiple deployments, was relieved by Commander Matthew Lewis. During the ceremony, the squadron commander presented Montalvo with the Legion of Merit for his service, and remarks highlighted the crew's achievements and the challenges ahead as the submarine prepared to "return...to sea" following maintenance periods.

By May 31, 2019, NORTH CAROLINA had emerged from that phase. On that date the boat held another change-of-command ceremony at the historic submarine piers at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, in which Commander Matthew Lewis was relieved by Commander Michael Fisher after more than 30 months in command. The Pacific Submarine Force noted that during Lewis's tenure the crew had faced a demanding workload in getting the submarine back out to sea earlier than anticipated and returning her to front-line operational status. He was credited with "restoring an already assumed to be lost deployment from the lifetime of the ship", a remark that hints at the significance of the maintenance work completed before the boat's return to full readiness.

Through 2019, photographs show NORTH CAROLINA moored at Pearl Harbor on several occasions, reflecting a period of local operations and preparations under her new commanding officer.

In March 2020 NORTH CAROLINA departed Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam with a dry deck shelter mounted aft of the sail, a configuration used to support Naval Special Warfare and swimmer delivery operations. Image captions from that departure and from June 2021, show Navy divers from Naval Special Warfare Command conducting operations off Hawaii in conjunction with the submarine, indicating her role in special operations training and demonstrating one of the multi-mission capabilities for which the VIRGINIA-class was designed. In these years, the submarine continued to feature prominently in public imagery of the Pacific undersea force, underscoring her status as a mature, front-line attack submarine.

On June 16, 2021, NORTH CAROLINA departed Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, with official photographs emphasizing the long-standing presence of U.S. military forces in and around the Pacific "in support of allies and partners and a free and open Indo-Pacific". Later that year, she sailed on another extended Western Pacific deployment. Navy media indicate that she departed Pearl Harbor on November 4, 2021, beginning a seven-month cruise. During this deployment, NORTH CAROLINA conducted anti-submarine and anti-surface operations, exercises and other tasks across the Indo-Pacific, reflecting U.S. efforts to deter potential adversaries and reassure regional partners amid rising great-power competition in the region. She arrived at Fleet Activities Yokosuka on February 25, 2022, for a port visit, as documented by a series of Navy photographs showing the boat's approach and mooring. On May 25, 2022, NORTH CAROLINA returned to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, completing the seven-month deployment. The Navy's account described it as a period in which the crew practiced the full range of submarine warfighting skills and operated closely with allies and partners.

The following year, NORTH CAROLINA again operated in the wider Indo-Pacific. On July 2023, she departed Pearl Harbor for another Western Pacific deployment. This cruise took place against the backdrop of deepening security cooperation among the United States, Australia, Japan and India and of the announcement in March 2023 of the AUKUS "optimal pathway", under which Australia would ultimately acquire and operate nuclear-powered submarines with U.S. and U.K. support. During the deployment, NORTH CAROLINA participated in bilateral and multilateral exercises with Australian, Indian and Japanese forces, including the high-profile MALABAR naval exercise and the large-scale combined exercise TALISMAN SABRE.

On August 4, 2023, the submarine arrived at the Royal Australian Navy's HMAS STIRLING at Fleet Base West, Garden Island near Perth - a port call highlighted both by local media and by U.S. Navy releases as the first visit to Australia by a U.S. nuclear-powered attack submarine since the AUKUS announcement. During the visit, NORTH CAROLINA hosted Australian leaders and regional diplomats on board, using the port call to underscore the growing undersea partnership envisaged by AUKUS and to familiarize Australian officials with the capabilities and routines of a VIRGINIA-class submarine. Later in the deployment, the submarine called at U.S. Naval Base Guam, departing Apra Harbor on December 22, 2023, and then proceeded to Japan, arriving at Fleet Activities Yokosuka on January 5, 2024. These port visits reflected her pattern of operating across the breadth of the Western Pacific while maintaining access to key U.S. and allied support hubs.

On January 31, 2024, NORTH CAROLINA returned to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, ending the seven-month deployment. A DVIDS release recorded that during the cruise the submarine steamed over 47,000 nautical miles and executed missions ranging from anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare to naval special warfare support, while also conducting extensive cooperation with allied navies. The same account emphasized the professional development of the crew: thirty-one sailors qualified in submarines during the deployment, earning their "dolphins", and the experience solidified the boat's status as a seasoned contributor to Indo-Pacific undersea operations.

Shortly after returning, NORTH CAROLINA took part in RIMPAC 2024, the world's largest international maritime exercise, conducted around Hawaii and Southern California in July 2024. Image captions show the submarine operating in the Pacific Ocean during RIMPAC 24, placing her alongside surface ships, aircraft and submarines from numerous partner navies in a complex, multi-domain training environment focused on sea control, power projection and coalition interoperability. Participation in such exercises highlights how attack submarines are woven into broader maritime task groups even while much of their detailed activity remains classified.

After more than a decade and a half of service, NORTH CAROLINA entered a major maintenance and modernization phase. In early September 2024, she moved into a dry dock at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility to begin a Depot Modernization Period (DMP), a comprehensive availability intended to refurbish systems, update equipment and extend the submarine's useful life. The boat entered dry dock on September 4, 2024. The shipyard, which had previously welcomed NORTH CAROLINA as the third VIRGINIA-class homeported at Pearl Harbor in 2010, noted that over the years these submarines had become central to its workload and to the Pacific Fleet's undersea posture. While in this modernization phase, the submarine again saw a change in leadership. On September 26, 2024, NORTH CAROLINA held a change-of-command ceremony at USS PARCHE Park and Submarine Memorial on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. Commander Michael Fritts relieved Commander Tad Robbins as commanding officer. The DVIDS report on the event highlighted that under Robbins' leadership the submarine had been awarded the 2023 Submarine Squadron 1 Battle Efficiency Award, the Electronic Warfare "E" and Navigation "N" departmental awards, and a Navy Unit Commendation following the 2023-24 Western Pacific deployment, underlining the boat's continued high standing within the Pacific Submarine Force. Fritts, previously executive officer of USS ALABAMA (SSBN 731), stated that his priorities would be material, personnel and training readiness to ensure NORTH CAROLINA would be ready "to answer the call" once she returned to the fleet after modernization.

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USS NORTH CAROLINA Construction Gallery:

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USS NORTH CAROLINA Image Gallery:

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