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Further Reading

SSN 715 Buffalo

USS BUFFALO (SSN 715) is the Navy's 25th Los Angeles class fast attack submarine. Her keel was laid on 25 January 1980 and she began her waterborne career on 8 May 1982, when she was launched by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Newport News, Virginia. She was commissioned on 5 November 1983 in Norfolk, Virginia, and one year later conducted an interfleet transfer to the Pacific Fleet Submarine Force via the Panama Canal. USS BUFFALO has been homeported in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii since 1984.

USS BUFFALO is a streamlined, highly advanced and complex fighting platform designed to defeat enemy naval forces alone or in consort with the modern Naval Battle Group. USS BUFFALO is an integral part of the Navy's ability to provide forward presence and project power around the world. The mainstays of her abilities are stealth, speed, endurance and flexibility. With her state of the art combat systems she can perform traditional sea control operations as well as strike targets on shore.

Powered by a safe, reliable and extremely powerful pressurized water nuclear reactor of advanced design, USS BUFFALO has the ability to operate independently of the outside atmosphere for extended periods of time at high speed.

The world's most highly trained and dedicated officers and crew are the backbone of the ship's ability. Employing her state of the art combat systems and electronic suites makes USS BUFFALO an outstanding multi-mission capable platform with formidable hunter-killer capability.

USS BUFFALO, like other 688 class submarines, is capable of carrying the most advanced weapons available to the submarine force. Included in her arsenal are the MK-48 advanced capability torpedo and the TOMAHAWK land attack cruise missile.

During her last drydocking USS BUFFALO was outfitted with the Dry-Deck Shelter system, further extending her capabilities to meet the ever-increasing demands being placed on the submarine force today. This new capability, coupled with her outstanding crew make USS BUFFALO the most formidable asset the Pacific Submarine Force has to offer.