USS Halibut (SSGN-587)

USS ''Halibut'' (SSGN-587), a unique nuclear-powered guided missile submarine-turned-special operations platform, later redesignated as an attack submarine SSN-587, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named after the halibut.

Operational history

''Halibut''s keel was laid down by Mare Island Naval Shipyard at Vallejo, California, on 11 April 1957. She was launched on 9 January 1959, sponsored by Vernice Holifield, wife of Congressman Chet Holifield of California, and commissioned on 4 January 1960.

Regulus deterrence patrols, 1960 – 1965

''Halibut'' was originally designed under project SCB 137 as a diesel-electric submarine, but was completed with nuclear power under SCB 137A. She was the first submarine initially designed to launch guided missiles. Intended to carry the Regulus I and Regulus II nuclear cruise missiles, her main deck was high above the waterline to provide a dry "flight deck." Her missile system was completely automated, with hydraulic machinery controlled from a central control station.

''Halibut'' departed on her shakedown cruise 11 March 1960. On 25 March, underway to Australia, she became the first nuclear-powered submarine to successfully launch a guided missile. She returned to Mare Island Naval Shipyard on 18 June 1960, and after short training cruises sailed 7 November for Pearl Harbor to join the Pacific Fleet. During her first deployment she successfully launched her seventh consecutive Regulus I missile during a major Southeast Asia Treaty Organization weapons demonstration. Returning to Pearl Harbor on 9 April 1961, ''Halibut'' began her second deployment 1 May. During subsequent cruises, she participated in several missile firing exercises and underwent training.

''Halibut'' deployed for the third time to the Western Pacific in late 1961, establishing a pattern of training and readiness operations followed through 1964. On 4 May 1964 ''Halibut'' departed Pearl Harbor for the last Regulus missile patrol to be made by a submarine in the Pacific. In total, between February 1961 and July 1964, ''Halibut'' undertook a total of seven deterrent patrols before being replaced in the Pacific by Polaris-equipped submarines of the . From September through December 1964, ''Halibut'' joined eight other submarines in testing and evaluating the attack capabilities of the ''Permit''-class submarine.

According to the documentary ''Regulus: The First Nuclear Missile Submarines'' the primary target for ''Halibut'' in the event of a nuclear exchange would be to eliminate the Soviet naval base at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The patrols made by ''Halibut'' and its sister Regulus-firing submarines represented the first ever deterrent patrols in the history of the submarine navy, preceding those made by the Polaris missile firing submarines.

Special operations missions, 1965 – 1976

Conversion for special operations (1965)

In 1965, John P. Craven was recruited to Operation Sand Dollar by US Naval Intelligence to build a submarine that would "... Hover in place ..and dangle cameras miles down, deep enough to scout the ocean bottom for Soviet Treasures...".

Craven was provided with a selection of either USS ''Seawolf'' or USS ''Halibut'' to convert as the budget could not commission a new, purpose-built vessel. Preferring USS ''Halibut'', he was awarded $70 million in February 1965 to "...Out-fit her with electronic, sonic, photographic, and video gadgets...". ''Halibut'' entered Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for a major overhaul, and on 15 August was redesignated as an attack submarine with the hull classification symbol SSN-587.

Chronology of special operations (1965-1976)

She sailed from Pearl Harbor on 6 September for the West Coast, arriving at Keyport, Washington, on 20 September. On 5 October she departed Keyport for Pearl Harbor and, after an eight-day stop over at Mare Island, California, arrived 21 October. ''Halibut'' then began ASW operations in the area, continuing until August 1968 when she transferred to Mare Island for overhaul and installation of: side thrusters; hangar section sea lock; anchoring winches with fore and aft mushroom anchors; saturation diving (mixed gas) habitat; long and short range side-look sonar; video and photographic equipment; Sperry UNIVAC 1224 mainframe computer; induction tapping and recording equipment; port and starboard, fore and aft seabed skids ("sneakers"); towed underwater search vehicle ("fish") and winch; and other specialized oceanographic equipment. She returned to Pearl Harbor in 1970 and operated with the Pacific Fleet and Submarine Development Group One (SubDevGruOne) out of Naval Submarine Support Facility San Diego (present day Naval Base Point Loma / Ballast Point) with attachment offices at Mare Island until decommissioning in 1976.

''Halibut'' was used on underwater espionage missions by the US against the Soviet Union. Her most notable accomplishments include:
* The underwater tapping of a Soviet communication line running from the Kamchatka peninsula west to the Soviet mainland in the Sea of Okhotsk (Operation Ivy Bells)
* Surveying sunken Soviet submarine ''K-129'' in August 1968, prior to the CIA's Project Azorian.

The latter mission is profiled in the 1996 book, ''Spy Sub – A Top Secret Mission to the Bottom of the Pacific'', by Dr. Roger C. Dunham, although Dunham was required to change the name of ''Halibut'' to that of the non-existent USS ''Viperfish'' with a false hull number of SSN-655 to pass Department of Defense security restrictions for publication.

Final disposition

''Halibut'' was decommissioned on 30 June 1976. She was " mothballed" at Keyport/Bangor Trident Base, Washington in 1976, struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 30 April 1986, and disposed of through the Ship-Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Washington, on 9 September 1994.

Awards and commendations

In April 1997, officers and men of ''Halibut'' and the other four US Navy submarines that conducted strategic deterrent patrols in the Western Pacific between 1959 and 1964 were awarded the right to wear the Navy's SSBN Deterrent Patrol insignia.

Presidential Unit Citation – 1968

:Citation:

Citation was given for the search and discovery of the wreck of a Soviet submarine K-129 in three miles of water during Project Azorian.

Presidential Unit Citation – 1972

:Citation:

See also

* USS ''Jimmy Carter'' (SSN-23)
* USS ''Parche'' (SSN-683)
* USS ''Seawolf'' (SSN-575)

References

*
*
*

Further reading

*Norman Polmar and J.K. Moore. ''Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of U.S. and Soviet Submarines''. Washington, DC: Potomac Books, Inc., 2004. (paperback)
*Roger C. Dunham. "Spy Sub – Top Secret Mission To The Bottom Of The Pacific". Penguin Books, USA; New York, NY, 1996.

External links

Some good US Navy pictures
and about the Documentary film produced by Nick T. Spark, '' "Regulus: The First Nuclear Missile Submarines" '' which aired initially on the History Channel in Europe.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Halibut
K-129 submarine sinking accident
Signals intelligence
Submarines of the United States Navy
Cold War submarines of the United States
Experimental nuclear submarines of the United States Navy
Ships built in Vallejo, California
1959 ships