Search the Site with

General Characteristics

Crew List

Memorabilia

Accidents aboard the Ship

History

Image Gallery

to end of page

USS Florida (SSGN 728)

USS FLORIDA is the third ship in the OHIO-class. She is the first submarine and the sixth U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name of the state and on January 14, 2003, the FLORIDA became the first OHIO -class submarine to launch a Tomahawk cruise missile. In April 2004, conversion started to modify the USS FLORIDA to carry 154 conventional cruise missiles instead of 24 Trident missiles. After completion of the conversion, FLORIDA was redesignated SSGN 728. As an SSGN, the FLORIDA is also able to support operations of up to 66 Special Forces Personnel for up to 90 days. The submarine reentered service on May 25, 2006.

back to top

go to the end of the page

back to top

go to the end of the page

Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS FLORIDA. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

• Click here to view the list.

back to top

go to the end of the page

• Click here to see which USS FLORIDA memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

back to top

go to the end of the page

Accidents aboard USS FLORIDA:

back to top

go to the end of the page

USS FLORIDA History:

USS FLORIDA began as part of the United States response to the maturing Soviet nuclear arsenal in the 1970s and ended up as one of the most intensively used and longest-serving submarines of the OHIO-class. Her career spans the late Cold War, the entire post-Cold-War deterrent era, and the age of expeditionary land-attack and special operations from the sea.

The contract to build the submarine was awarded to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics at Groton, Connecticut on February 28, 1975, as part of the initial production run of OHIO-class ballistic missile submarines. Her keel was laid on July 4, 1976, deliberately timed to coincide with the bicentennial of U.S. independence, although the boat remained unnamed at that ceremony. The pre-commissioning unit, the initial ship's crew, formally stood up on July 8, 1980, and on February 14, 1981, the first shipboard watches were stationed to assume control of engineering systems from the shipyard. On January 19, 1981, the Secretary of the Navy approved the name FLORIDA, the sixth U.S. Navy ship to honor the state of Florida.

USS FLORIDA was launched at Groton on November 14, 1981, sponsored by Marcia M. Carlucci, wife of then-deputy secretary of defense Frank Carlucci. Her nuclear reactor first went critical on November 13, 1982, marking the transition from construction to active testing. The crew moved aboard on January 21, 1983, and initial builder's sea trials began on February 21, 1983. Electric Boat delivered the submarine to the Navy on May 17, 1983, reported as ahead of schedule. USS FLORIDA was commissioned on June 18, 1983 at Groton with a dual-crew arrangement: Captain William L. Powell in command of the Blue Crew and Captain George R. Sterner in command of the Gold Crew. Both crews conducted demonstration and shakedown operations, each culminating in the successful test launch of a Trident C4 ballistic missile, proving the ship's role in the strategic nuclear deterrent.

Following commissioning, FLORIDA shifted from the Atlantic shipyard to her operational theater in the Pacific. In February 1984, she transited the Panama Canal and arrived at her first operational homeport, Bangor, Washington, on March 25, 1984. There, she joined the growing Trident submarine force of the Pacific Fleet. She completed her first strategic deterrent patrol on July 25, 1984, operating as part of the United States' sea-based nuclear triad during the final years of the Cold War, when U.S. ballistic missile submarines maintained continuous patrols in the Pacific to ensure a survivable second-strike capability against the Soviet Union.

Throughout the late 1980s, FLORIDA settled into the pattern that would define her SSBN service: alternating Blue and Gold crews conducting extended deterrent patrols from Bangor, interspersed with refit, training, and occasional port visits. Photographic records show her conducting magnetic silencing work in August 1985 and at sea later that year, illustrating the routine calibration and maintenance needed to reduce the submarine's acoustic and magnetic signatures. By this period, the Soviet Navy's own ballistic missile and attack submarines were operating more aggressively in the Pacific, and FLORIDA's patrols formed part of a broader U.S. posture of forward deterrence and continuous at-sea presence. She earned her first Battle Efficiency "E" award in 1989, recognizing overall combat readiness among Trident submarines.

After the end of the Cold War in 1991, FLORIDA remained in service as part of the restructured strategic deterrent force. That same year, she received both another Battle "E" and the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award, an all-Navy award recognizing a single ship in each fleet for overall excellence, reflecting her high performance in engineering, operations, and crew training.

In the mid-1990s, she continued deterrent patrols from Bangor while the United States and Russia implemented arms control measures such as START I. Port-visit photography places FLORIDA at Alameda, California, in May 1994 and in the Pacific near Hawaii in May 1997, consistent with a pattern of West Coast port calls between patrols or during post-overhaul deployments.

Not all aspects of her 1990s history were routine. In 1997, the commanding officer, Commander Michael J. Alfonso, was relieved of command. Official summaries describe the reason in terms of an unsuccessful command climate and failure to maintain an effective command team, an event that underscored the importance the submarine force placed on leadership style and crew cohesion even on high-performing units. Despite this setback, FLORIDA's overall operational record remained strong. As of November 2002, she had completed 61 strategic deterrent patrols and had been repeatedly recognized with Battle "E" awards in 1989, 1991, 1994, 1999, and 2002.

A major milestone came in 2001. In the context of the long-running U.S. SSBN patrol program that began in the early 1960s, the submarine force tracked cumulative patrols across the fleet. In May 2001, FLORIDA completed the 3,500th strategic deterrent patrol carried out by a U.S. fleet ballistic missile submarine, a milestone noted within Submarine Group command histories and arms-control literature. Nuclear chronology records identify May 25, 2001, as the date on which USS FLORIDA completed this patrol. Contemporary summaries associated with the ship's detailed history note that this patrol was conducted by the Gold Crew and lasted nearly two months, after which the submarine returned to Bangor and a Blue Crew patrol followed later in the year.

As the Navy's strategic focus began to shift from pure nuclear deterrence toward more flexible undersea roles, FLORIDA approached the end of her ballistic-missile career. Nuclear-weapon chronologies record that on October 16, 2002, she completed her sixty-first and final strategic deterrent patrol. Between October 16 and October 24, 2002, she offloaded her Trident I (C4) ballistic missiles in preparation for conversion. On November 1, 2002, she was formally removed from strategic service, ending nearly two decades of continuous SSBN operations.

As the Navy and the Department of Defense looked for ways to retain the large and relatively young OHIO-class hulls in a post-Cold War environment with fewer deployed warheads, four boats - including FLORIDA - were selected for conversion into guided-missile submarines (SSGNs), combining large land-attack missile magazines with extensive special operations support capabilities.

FLORIDA entered Norfolk Naval Shipyard in July 2003 for a combined nuclear refueling overhaul and SSGN conversion. Over the following years, her missile compartment was reconfigured: most ballistic-missile tubes were refitted to carry multiple Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles, while others were adapted as lockout and stowage spaces for special operations forces and their equipment. The conversion gave the boat the ability to carry up to 154 Tomahawk missiles and to embark and support more than 60 special operations personnel, alongside four torpedo tubes in the bow.

Sea trials from Norfolk in March 2006 demonstrated the new configuration, and in April 2006, FLORIDA departed the shipyard and returned to the operational fleet, shifting homeport to Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Georgia. On May 25, 2006 a formal return-to-service ceremony was held at Naval Station Mayport, with Marcia Carlucci again serving as sponsor as the ship re-entered the fleet as USS FLORIDA (SSGN 728).

In the first years after conversion, FLORIDA's operations focused on proving the SSGN concept. In 2006 and 2007, she conducted sea trials, local operations, and special-operations training off the U.S. East Coast and in the Atlantic. U.S. Navy imagery from July 2007 shows Navy divers and special operators of SEAL Delivery Team 2 conducting operations with a SEAL Delivery Vehicle from FLORIDA, illustrating the platform's role as a covert host and launch point for swimmer delivery systems.

By 2008-2009, she was regularly deploying from Kings Bay into the Mediterranean. Photographs and official captions show the submarine at Kings Bay in April 2008, in Souda Bay, Crete in April 2009, and again in Souda Bay and at Kings Bay in early 2009, reflecting a pattern of transatlantic deployments that combined land-attack and special operations capabilities with presence in the U.S. Sixth Fleet area of responsibility.

In March 2010, FLORIDA again called at Souda Bay during a Mediterranean deployment. Navy imagery records the submarine arriving there on March 9, 2010, for a routine port visit, before returning to sea. Later that year, she was involved in a highly visible demonstration of U.S. undersea power in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. On June 28, 2010, three OHIO-class submarines - USS OHIO (SSGN 726), USS MICHIGAN (SSBN 727), and USS FLORIDA - surfaced simultaneously in widely separated locations: OHIO near the Philippines, MICHIGAN near the Republic of Korea, and FLORIDA in the waters of the British Indian Ocean Territory near Diego Garcia. This coordinated surfacing followed Chinese missile tests and was widely interpreted as a deliberate signal of U.S. ability to bring large volumes of cruise-missile firepower to bear across the Indo-Pacific.

The high-profile test of 2010 was followed by combat operations the next year. In early 2011, FLORIDA deployed again to European and Central Command waters. On March 7, 2011, she arrived at Naval Support Activity Souda Bay, Greece, for a port visit while deployed in the Sixth Fleet area. As unrest in Libya escalated into armed conflict and the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1973 authorizing enforcement of a no-fly zone, U.S. and allied forces prepared Operation Odyssey Dawn. On March 19, 2011, FLORIDA joined the opening Tomahawk strike against Libyan air defense targets. Official Navy and historical summaries record that the guided-missile destroyers USS BARRY (DDG 52) and USS STOUT (DDG 55), the fast attack submarines USS PROVIDENCE (SSN 719) and USS SCRANTON (SSN 756), and the guided-missile submarine USS FLORIDA all launched Tomahawk land-attack missiles from positions in or near the Mediterranean, in conjunction with British TRAFALGAR-class submarines and other allied units.

These strikes were intended to degrade Libyan integrated air defenses and command-and-control nodes so that allied aircraft from carriers and land bases could enforce the no-fly zone and prevent attacks on civilian population centers. During Operation Odyssey Dawn, FLORIDA's large missile battery allowed her to play a central role. Both Navy and open-source histories state that she launched more than 90 Tomahawk missiles during the operation, with detailed figures from official-derived compilations giving a total of 93 missiles fired, 90 assessed as effective.

This was the first combat use of any OHIO-class SSGN and the first time a U.S. guided-missile submarine employed Tomahawk missiles in conflict. Because at that time FLORIDA was the only SSGN assigned to the Mediterranean, she was the sole member of her class available for the Libya operation, while surface combatants and attack submarines supplemented the strike package. The Libya deployment formed part of a longer 15-month mission that spanned both U.S. European and Central Command areas of responsibility. According to an official Navy news release, FLORIDA returned to Kings Bay on April 29, 2011, after that 15-month deployment, having operated with U.S. joint and coalition forces in support of the UN resolution on Libya and broader regional security tasks.

Following her return, the submarine entered a maintenance period at homeport before resuming forward deployments, validating the SSGN concept as a means of delivering large volumes of precision land-attack firepower from a covert platform while also supporting special operations.

In the years after Odyssey Dawn, FLORIDA continued to operate primarily from Kings Bay into the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Photographic and archival sources show her moored again in Souda Bay in April 2016, and at various times in Kings Bay, underlining a pattern of periodic Mediterranean deployments interwoven with homeport maintenance and training. Throughout this period, she remained one of only four SSGNs in the U.S. Navy, split between the Pacific (OHIO and MICHIGAN) and Atlantic (FLORIDA and GEORGIA (SSGN 729)) fleets, and therefore represented a significant share of the Navy's covert land-attack missile capacity and long-range special operations support.

From roughly 2018, FLORIDA entered into a phase of unusually prolonged forward deployment. A U.S. Strategic Command account of her operations notes that she was forward deployed for more than 800 days before returning to Kings Bay in May 2020, supporting U.S. Africa, Central, and European Commands. During this period, she reportedly sailed more than 98,000 nautical miles - about four times around the globe - and qualified over 200 sailors as submariners ("earning their dolphins"). Visual documentation and public statements highlight repeated visits to Souda Bay during these years: official imagery shows FLORIDA arriving there on March 14, 2019, and again on September 7, 2019, during one of these extended deployments. She finally returned to Kings Bay on May 9, 2020, concluding what Navy recognition and STRATCOM reports describe as an 800-plus-day forward deployment where the SSGN acted as a versatile, largely unseen asset able to support strike, intelligence, and special operations contingencies.

Even as she continued this high operational tempo, planning began for her eventual retirement. In December 2020, the Navy's long-range shipbuilding plan, as summarized by SeaPower magazine and other defense analyses, indicated that two OHIO-class guided-missile submarines - USS OHIO and USS FLORIDA - were scheduled to be recycled during the 2022-2026 period, reflecting both hull age and the projected arrival of future undersea strike platforms. Nevertheless, FLORIDA remained active and, if anything, her operational tempo increased.

In August 2022, FLORIDA departed on what would become the longest documented deployment of any OHIO-class submarine. According to a detailed retrospective in 2025 that draws on official Navy reporting, she embarked on a global patrol lasting 727 days. During this deployment, she operated successively in the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Fleet areas of responsibility - encompassing the Middle East, Europe, and the Western Pacific - circumnavigated the globe, and conducted five crew swaps while underway. The submarine covered an estimated 60,000 nautical miles before returning home on July 31, 2024. The deployment took place against the backdrop of increasing tensions with Russia, China, and Iran, and public commentary describes it as intended to counter threats from all three, demonstrating the ability of an SSGN to move between theaters while remaining largely undetected.

Some parts of this extended cruise were unusually visible for a submarine deployment. On April 7, 2023, the Navy took the rare step of publicly announcing that USS FLORIDA had transited the Suez Canal into the Red Sea to operate under U.S. Fifth Fleet. The announcement, which emphasized that FLORIDA could carry up to 154 Tomahawk missiles, came shortly after attacks on U.S. forces and contractors in Syria that Washington attributed to Iran-backed groups and was widely interpreted as a deterrent message toward Iran and other regional actors considering further attacks on U.S. personnel and shipping. Later reporting in November 2023 described an "OHIO-class submarine" entering the Persian Gulf as a show of force. Although official sources did not always explicitly name the boat, subsequent media and analytic coverage identified FLORIDA as the submarine involved, underscoring her role as a visible instrument of deterrence in the Gulf amid heightened tensions linked to regional conflicts and Iranian activities.

At the same time, FLORIDA continued to appear periodically in Mediterranean ports, especially Souda Bay. In addition to the 2019 visits already noted, official photographs show her moored there on multiple occasions. These visits provided logistics, crew rest, and engagement opportunities while the submarine otherwise operated submerged in European, Middle Eastern, and adjacent waters. The combination of very long forward deployments, global transits, and both covert and publicized movements underlined her value as a flexible, survivable platform able to shift rapidly among theaters.

By 2025, analyses of the U.S. submarine force consistently described USS FLORIDA as nearing the end of her service life. Defense reporting and the Navy's own long-range plans continued to list her as tentatively slated for decommissioning and recycling around 2026, alongside USS OHIO, even as articles highlighted the tension between her demonstrated operational value - particularly the Libya strikes, the 800-day forward deployment culminating in May 2020, and the 727-day global patrol ending in July 2024 - and the need to transition to newer platforms.

back to top

go to the end of the page

back to top

go to the end of the page

USS FLORIDA Image Gallery:

back to top

Back to Ballistic Submarines list.

Back to ships list.

Back to selection page.

Back to 1^st page.