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USS Gato (SSN-615)

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Career
Authorized:9 July 1960
Laid down:15 December 1961
Launched:14 May 1964
Commissioned:25 January 1968
Fate:recycled
Struck:25 April 1996
General Characteristics
Displacement:3964 tons light, 4242 tons full, 278 tons dead
Length:292 feet
Beam:32 feet
Draft:28 feet
Propulsion:S5W reactor with S3G-3 Core, two steam turbines with reduction-geared single shaft
Armament:four 21-inch torpedo tubes amidships, MK-37 and MK-48 torpedoes, MK-67 SLMM, UGM-84 Harpoon cruise missiles, SUBROC short range ballistic missile
Complement:12 officers, 115 men

The second USS Gato (SSN 615) was a Thresher-class submarine known as the "Goal Keeper" or the "Black Cat." The contract to build her was awarded to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation on 9 July 1960 and her keel was laid down on 15 December 1961 at Groton, Connecticut. She was launched 14 May 1964 sponsored by Mrs. Lawson P. Ramage, and was commissioned 25 January 1968.

On 15 November 1969, Gato collided with the Soviet submarine K-19 in the Barents Sea at a depth of some 200 feet.

Gato was decommissioned and stricken on 25 April 1996 and disposed of by submarine recycling.

See also USS Gato (SS-212).