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USS Newport News (SSN 750)

USS NEWPORT NEWS is the 39^th LOS ANGELES-class nuclear-powered attack submarine and the last ship in this class with its diving planes assigned to the sail structure. NEWPORT NEWS is the third ship in the Navy to bear the name.

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Crew List:

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

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About the Ship's Coat of Arms:

The insignia of the USS NEWPORT NEWS has the overall shape of an ellipse which is the same geometric shape of Newport News Shipbuilding's logo. This symbolizes the relationship between the ship and her builders. The center depicts the Victory Arch, the principle monument in the city of Newport News which is shown looming phantom-like in the background. The focal point is the USS NEWPORT NEWS, cruising the waters of the world to assure victory anywhere. The national colors are symbolically formed by the converging of sky, horizon, and sea. The stars represent the two previous naval vessels named for the city.

The motto Magni Nominus Umbra ("in the shadow of a great name") links the ship to the city for which she is named as well as the careers of previous naval ships that have carried the name Newport News.

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Accidents aboard USS NEWPORT NEWS:

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USS NEWPORT NEWS Patch Gallery:

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USS NEWPORT NEWS History:

USS NEWPORT NEWS began her story in the early 1980s, when the U.S. Navy ordered another batch of LOS ANGELES-class attack submarines to sustain Cold War undersea strength. The contract for the boat that would become NEWPORT NEWS was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company at Newport News, Virginia, on April 19, 1982, tying the submarine closely to the shipbuilding city whose name she would carry. Her keel was laid on March 3, 1984, at the yard's submarine construction facilities, and over the next two years the hull was completed and outfitted.

The submarine was launched on March 15, 1986. The sponsor, Rosemary D. Trible, the wife of Senator Paul S. Trible Jr. of Virginia, christened the boat at Newport News, continuing the U.S. Navy tradition of linking warships to prominent civilian sponsors. During the pre-commissioning period, NEWPORT NEWS completed pier-side fitting-out and sea trials, proving her propulsion plant, combat systems, and diving characteristics in the Atlantic. When she was commissioned on June 3, 1989, at Naval Station Norfolk, Commander Mark B. Keef took command as the first commanding officer. At the ceremony, local officials from the city of Newport News presented the submarine with a plaque bearing a poem about the city, underlining the symbolic connection between the shipbuilding community and the nuclear attack submarine that carried its name.

Following commissioning, USS NEWPORT NEWS joined Submarine Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, with Norfolk, Va., as her homeport, operating as part of the Navy's principal Atlantic undersea force at the very end of the Cold War. Open sources give only broad outlines of her first years, but they place the boat in the pattern typical for new LOS ANGELES-class submarines: local operations and extended exercises with carrier battle groups in the western Atlantic and Mediterranean, supporting surveillance, anti-submarine warfare training, and presence missions as the Soviet Navy declined and the Cold War ended.

In 1990-1991, NEWPORT NEWS deployed to the Mediterranean in the run-up to and during OPERATION DESERT SHIELD and OPERATION DESERT STORM, as the United States and a broad coalition responded to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. A Navy listing of participating units places NEWPORT NEWS among the submarines assigned to the Mediterranean theater during the campaign, reflecting her role in the broader U.S. undersea presence that supported maritime interception operations and provided a covert strike and intelligence capability during the conflict. Although the detailed patrol tracks remain classified, publicly available information confirms that she was part of the submarine force committed to the first large U.S. combat operation after the Cold War.

Three years later, in 1994, NEWPORT NEWS again deployed to the Persian Gulf region, at a time when U.N. sanctions and no-fly zones were being enforced against Iraq. Naval histories summarize this cruise as another Gulf deployment, illustrating the pattern of repeated submarine rotations to the region during the 1990s to support sanctions enforcement, maritime interception operations, and deterrence against renewed Iraqi aggression.

Through the remainder of the decade, she continued to operate from Norfolk with the Atlantic submarine force, but detailed open-source accounts of her intermediate deployments and specific port visits in those years are sparse; the public record simply reflects that she remained an active fast-attack submarine supporting Atlantic and Mediterranean commitments.

In 2002, NEWPORT NEWS deployed with the carrier battle group centered on USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN 73), heading once more toward the Middle East as tensions with Iraq escalated. By late 2002, she was on station in the Red Sea and Arabian region along with other attack submarines and surface combatants, as the United States prepared for what would become OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM. When coalition forces opened the campaign in March 2003, NEWPORT NEWS took part in the initial strike phase by launching Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles against targets in Iraq. A detailed study of the Iraq War notes that she was one of several U.S. and Royal Navy submarines, along with ships such as USS MILIUS (DDG 69), USS SAN JUAN (SSN 751), USS MONTPELIER (SSN 765), USS TOLEDO (SSN 769), USS COLUMBIA (SSN 771) and USS CHEYENNE (SSN 773), that fired cruise missiles in the opening stages of the campaign. During this combat deployment, NEWPORT NEWS launched a total of 19 Tomahawk missiles from her stations, providing precision strike capability against Iraqi regime and military infrastructure. After roughly six and a half months away from home, NEWPORT NEWS returned to Norfolk on April 23, 2003, concluding her IRAQI FREEDOM deployment. The cruise highlighted how LOS ANGELES-class submarines had evolved from primarily anti-submarine platforms during the Cold War into multi-mission assets able to contribute directly to land attack, intelligence gathering, and special operations support in regional conflicts.

Her next major deployment, beginning in 2004, saw NEWPORT NEWS joined to the carrier strike group built around USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN 69) for operations in the North Atlantic. Contemporary summaries describe this cruise as a deployment with the EISENHOWER group into northern waters, where U.S. and NATO navies continued to train in anti-submarine warfare and power projection in the post-Cold-War environment, while also adapting to new missions such as maritime security and support to operations in the Middle East.

By the mid-2000s, NEWPORT NEWS remained an integral part of Atlantic Fleet undersea forces. She participated in complex pre-deployment exercises such as joint task force exercises with carrier strike groups, rehearsing strike, undersea warfare, and joint operations before deployments to the CENTCOM region. It was against this backdrop of high operational tempo that one of the most publicly visible events in her career occurred. On January 8, 2007, while transiting submerged through the Strait of Hormuz region between Iran and Oman - one of the world's busiest and most strategically sensitive maritime choke points - USS NEWPORT NEWS collided with the Japanese-flagged tanker MOGAMIGAWA. Contemporary reporting places the time of the incident at about 10:15 p.m. local time. The bow of the submarine struck the tanker's stern area while the tanker was outbound from the Gulf toward Singapore. There were no injuries on either vessel, and both remained capable of navigation. Assessments by U.S., Japanese, and Emirati authorities stated that there was no leakage of oil and no release of radioactive material from the submarine's propulsion plant.

The submarine proceeded to Bahrain for inspection and damage assessment, while international media and regional observers focused on the implications of a nuclear-powered vessel colliding in such a confined, politically sensitive waterway. U.S. sources later explained that hydrodynamic effects as the large tanker passed over the submerged submarine likely contributed to the collision. At the time, NEWPORT NEWS was serving with the DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER strike group, which was supporting U.S. operations in the broader region, including strikes against suspected al-Qaida targets in Somalia - illustrating how submarines deployed to the Gulf often supported regional operations far beyond the immediate vicinity of the strait itself.

A U.S. Navy investigation followed, and on January 29, 2007, the commanding officer, Commander Matthew A. Weingart, was relieved of command due to loss of confidence, as reported in contemporary naval and press accounts. The United States ultimately agreed to compensate the owners of MOGAMIGAWA for the damage to the tanker's hull and propeller.

After repairs and a return to full operational status, NEWPORT NEWS resumed deployments. A notable cruise came in 2009, when she undertook a six-month deployment that combined national-tasking operations with significant multinational engagement in the Western Hemisphere. Under the command of Commander David W. Allridge, she returned to Norfolk on October 15, 2009, after operating in support of U.S. national security interests and maritime security operations. During this deployment, the submarine participated in the 50th iteration of UNITAS, the long-running series of naval exercises with South American partner nations, underscoring the undersea force's role in fostering interoperability with regional navies. She also marked the 20th anniversary of her commissioning while on deployment. Port visits during this cruise included Balboa and Panama City in Panama, Curacao in the Netherlands Antilles, and San Diego, California, demonstrating the geographic range of the deployment from the Caribbean and Pacific approaches to the eastern Pacific coast of the United States.

In 2011, NEWPORT NEWS again deployed across the Atlantic, this time for a scheduled deployment focused on Maritime Security Operations in the U.S. European Command area of responsibility. On September 15, 2011, she returned to Norfolk from this deployment under the command of Commander J. Carl Hartsfield. During the cruise, the submarine made a series of port visits that illustrate both NATO cooperation and the use of attack submarines for visible presence: Toulon, France; Faslane, Scotland; Haakonsvern near Bergen, Norway; Portsmouth, England; and Lisbon, Portugal. These visits, all documented in official U.S. Navy imagery and captions, show NEWPORT NEWS acting as a deployed asset within a network of allied ports, while her at-sea activities remained focused on deterrence, surveillance, and training in North Atlantic and European waters.

The mid-2010s brought a sequence of long deployments that reflected the Navy's emphasis on both the European and Middle Eastern theaters. One of the most thoroughly documented is the 2015-2016 deployment under the command of Commander Patrick Clark. NEWPORT NEWS returned to Norfolk on June 10, 2016, after approximately six months at sea. During this period, the submarine operated in both the U.S. SIXTH FLEET (European) and FIFTH FLEET (Middle Eastern) areas of responsibility, supporting maritime security operations and broader national security objectives in the European and Central Command theaters. According to the Navy's official release, the boat steamed about 40,000 nautical miles, at times operating above the Arctic Circle and at other times south of the equator, highlighting the climatic and geographic extremes in a single deployment. Port visits on this 2016 cruise, described in Navy reporting included Haakonsvern at Bergen, Norway, where NEWPORT NEWS moored on January 7, 2016, for a routine visit, and Gibraltar, where the submarine moored at Berth 50, South Mole, beginning January 20 for a stay of more than two weeks. Later in the deployment she called at Diego Garcia in the British Indian Ocean Territory and Souda Bay, Crete, Greece. Together, these port calls show how the deployment bridged northern Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Indian Ocean in a single cruise.

After maintenance and training cycles back in Norfolk, NEWPORT NEWS deployed again. By October 13, 2018, she completed another extended deployment, returning to NORFOLK after more than seven months away. Under the command of Commander Michael Grubb, the submarine steamed roughly 40,500 nautical miles during this period, according to official Navy summaries, and conducted missions in support of U.S. European Command and the submarine force's national-level tasking. Public releases note that she made several port visits in England, in Scotland, and in Gibraltar, although the specific ports within those regions are not detailed.

In April 2019, NEWPORT NEWS saw another change of command when Commander David Fassel relieved Commander Michael Grubb during a ceremony at Naval Station Norfolk. Under Commander Fassel, the submarine would carry out one of the most demanding deployments of her career. That deployment took place in 2019-2020 and coincided with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. On July 18, 2020, USS NEWPORT NEWS returned to her homeport at Naval Station Norfolk from a deployment of about seven months. During the cruise she operated primarily in the U.S. FIFTH FLEET area of responsibility, supporting maritime security operations in the broader Middle East. The Navy's official report emphasizes that the submarine reached a milestone of 1,000 dives on this cruise and spent 137 consecutive days underway without a port visit - an unusually long continuous period at sea for an attack submarine, driven in part by pandemic-related constraints. The boat steamed roughly 45,000 nautical miles. Because of COVID-19, opportunities for liberty ashore were almost eliminated. The one recorded port visit was to Diego Garcia, where NEWPORT NEWS moored pierside with strict measures to keep the crew in a controlled environment, allowing limited rest and resupply while minimizing infection risk. At one point, the submarine conducted a rare at-sea replenishment evolution, transferring supplies while remaining underway to preserve COVID-free status.

From an operational perspective, the deployment also included combined exercises: while operating in FIFTH FLEET waters, NEWPORT NEWS conducted a bilateral interoperability exercise with the French frigate FS LANGUEDOC and an anti-submarine warfare event with the DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER Carrier Strike Group, demonstrating close cooperation with both NATO allies and U.S. carrier forces in contested waters.

By the early 2020s, NEWPORT NEWS had shifted her homeport from Norfolk to Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Connecticut, and was operating under SUBMARINE SQUADRON TWELVE. This is clearly documented by early 2023, when Navy releases describe the boat as a Groton-based submarine under that squadron. Under this new administrative alignment with the New London submarine waterfront, she continued to deploy to European waters.

In 2022, under the command of Commander Joseph A. Fontenot, NEWPORT NEWS carried out a six-month deployment to the U.S. European Command area of responsibility. She returned to New London on January 3, 2023. During this cruise the submarine steamed nearly 33,000 nautical miles and made port calls to Tromso, Norway; Faslane, Scotland; and Rota, Spain. The deployment once again emphasized maritime security and deterrence missions in North Atlantic and European waters, reflecting NATO's heightened focus on undersea operations in the high latitudes and along the approaches to Europe. The 2022 deployment was also notable for crew achievements: thirty-nine personnel earned their Submarine Warfare qualification "dolphins", and sailors completed more than 350 individual watchstation qualifications at sea. In recognition of her overall performance, NEWPORT NEWS received the 2022 Battle Efficiency ("Battle E") Award as the top-performing submarine in SUBRON TWELVE, an honor announced in the same Navy news story that covered the boat's early-January 2023 homecoming.

By this point, the boat - commissioned in 1989 - was not only a veteran of multiple conflicts and theaters but, as a March 2025 U.S. Navy historical note observed, the oldest submarine in Groton. Even after more than three decades of service, NEWPORT NEWS continued to set firsts. In July 2025, she made a high-profile port visit to Iceland that drew attention in U.S. and Icelandic media. A corporate news release from the shipbuilder's community site and related public imagery describe this visit as the first time a nuclear-powered submarine has made a port call in Iceland, marking a new step in U.S.-Iceland defense cooperation and in NATO's visible undersea presence in the North Atlantic. The visit underscored how an ageing but still capable LOS ANGELES-class boat remained part of current alliance posture in the GIUK (Greenland-Iceland-UK) gap region, an area again central to NATO maritime planning.

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USS NEWPORT NEWS Image Gallery:

The photo below was taken by me and shows the NEWPORT NEWS undergoing maintenance at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on October 27, 2010.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the NEWPORT NEWS at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on April 29, 2015.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the NEWPORT NEWS at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on October 4, 2017.

The photo below was taken by me and shows the NEWPORT NEWS at HMNB Clyde, Faslane, Scotland, on April 21, 2018. The NEWPORT NEWS is in Scotland to participate in Exercise Joint Warrior 181.

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