US Navy submarine Providence completes final deployment

The US Navy Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Providence has completed its 16th and final deployment and returned to its homeport at Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Connecticut, earlier this month.

Providence was underway for 212 days, of which the first five months were spent predominately underway “maintaining a vital presence in the western Pacific Ocean,” said Commander Michael McLaine, the submarine’s commanding officer.

Providence was commissioned on July 27, 1985, and is the fifth US warship named after the capital city of the state of Rhode Island. It will be decommissioned later this year.

The submarine’s combat service included 2011’s Operation Odyssey Dawn, during which it launched cruise missiles against Libyan ground-based air defence units loyal to the country’s then leader, Muammar Gaddafi.