Lead ship. First production nuclear submarine. Made the first submerged transarctic crossing August 1958. Surfaced at the North Pole on 17 March 1959. First ship in history to do so. Reshaped Cold War naval planning permanently.

Second Skate-class nuclear submarine. Pacific Fleet operations through the Cold War. Intelligence-gathering and barrier patrols in the Western Pacific against Soviet naval forces.

Conducted submerged Pacific Arctic transit in early 1960. Operated under ice in the Chukchi and Bering Seas. Extended the Arctic operating envelope established by Skate to the Pacific side of the polar basin.

First submarine to transit the Northwest Passage submerged, 1960. Then rendezvoused with USS Skate at the North Pole. First time two submarines had ever met at the Pole. Established U.S. Navy Arctic submarine doctrine for the Cold War.