USS ''Charlotte'' (SSN-766), a , is the fourth ship of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

to be named for

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

. The contract to build her was awarded to

Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, is the largest industrial employer in Virginia, and sole designer, builder and refueler of United States Navy aircraft carriers and one of two providers of U.S. Navy ...

in Newport News, Virginia on 6 February 1987 and her keel was laid down on 17 August 1990. Sponsored by Mrs. Mary McComack, she was launched on 3 October 1992 and commissioned on 16 September 1994. She arrived at her homeport of

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the R ...

on 17 November 1995.

History

On 29 November 2005, ''Charlotte'' arrived in Norfolk, Virginia, having taken the northern route from

, under the

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, N ...

ice cap. Along the way, she surfaced at the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

through 61 inches of ice, a record for a . On 24 October 2007, ''Charlotte'' returned to Pearl Harbor from Norfolk Naval Shipyard after nearly two years in a Depot Modernization Period. ''Charlotte'' has completed a total of five Western Pacific deployments. In February 1998, she was deployed to the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bod ...

as part of a multinational military buildup of naval, air, and land forces that included more than 30 American warships and two

carrier battle group A carrier battle group (CVBG) is a naval fleet consisting of an aircraft carrier capital ship and its large number of escorts, together defining the group. The ''CV'' in ''CVBG'' is the United States Navy hull classification code for an ai ...

s. ''Charlotte'' and the other American and British warships were deployed as a deterrent in case

Iraqi President The president of Iraq is the head of state of Iraq and "safeguards the commitment to the Constitution and the preservation of Iraq's independence, sovereignty, unity, the security of its territories in accordance with the provisions of the Con ...

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...

failed to honor his commitment to the United Nations to allow arms inspectors into Iraq. She completed a six-month deployment to the Western Pacific on 13 May 2016. ''Charlotte'' participated in

RIMPAC RIMPAC, the Rim of the Pacific Exercise, is the world's largest international maritime warfare exercise. RIMPAC is held biennially during June and July of even-numbered years from Honolulu, Hawaii, with the exception of 2020 where it was held ...

2022.

Awards

* (3) Meritorious Unit Commendation * (2) Battle "E" * (2) Secretary of the Navy Letter of Commendation * (2) Navy Unit Commendation * (1) Engineering "E" * (1) DC Red

''Charlotte'' in fiction

Tom Clancy Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. (April 12, 1947 – October 1, 2013) was an American novelist. He is best known for his technically detailed espionage and military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of his novels have ...

's 1994 book ''

Debt of Honor ''Debt of Honor'' is a techno-thriller novel, written by Tom Clancy and released on August 17, 1994. A direct sequel to '' The Sum of All Fears'' (1991), Jack Ryan becomes the National Security Advisor when a secret cabal of Japanese industria ...

'', USS ''Charlotte'' is sunk by the Japanese sub '' Harushio'' along with her sister ship . USS ''Charlotte'' also makes an appearance in

Dan Brown Daniel Gerhard Brown (born June 22, 1964) is an American author best known for his thriller novels, including the Robert Langdon novels ''Angels & Demons'' (2000), '' The Da Vinci Code'' (2003), ''The Lost Symbol'' (2009), '' Inferno'' (2013), ...

's 2001 novel '' Deception Point'', where it plays an important role taking covert missions to the Arctic. USS ''Charlotte'' is featured alongside sister ship ' in the 2013

John Ringo John Ringo (born March 22, 1963) is an American science fiction and military fiction author. He has had several ''New York Times'' best sellers. His books range from straightforward science fiction to a mix of military and political thrillers ...

novel ''Under A Graveyard Sky.''

References

Los Angeles-class submarines Nuclear submarines of the United States Navy 1992 ships Submarines of the United States Ships built in Newport News, Virginia {{US-submarine-stub