USS Los Angeles at 50: 18 of the 62 Boats of the 688 Class Still Serve in the US Navy

The Los Angeles-class attack submarine turns 50 next week. USS Los Angeles (SSN-688), the lead boat of the class, was commissioned on 13 November 1976, and the family of 62 nuclear-powered fast-attack submarines that took her hull number as its nickname, the "688 class", still accounts for 18 of the 47 attack submarines in commission, according to GlobalMilitary.net's 2026 inventory of the US Navy's submarine fleet.

The contract for the lead ship was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company of Newport News, Virginia, on 8 January 1971. Her keel was laid exactly one year later, on 8 January 1972, and she was launched on 6 April 1974 before entering service in November 1976 as the fourth US Navy ship named for the city of Los Angeles.

By 2007 she was the oldest submarine in active service with the US Navy. Her decommissioning ceremony was held at the Port of Los Angeles on 23 January 2010, she was formally decommissioned on 4 February 2011, and her recycling was completed on 30 November 2012.

The class she led was built from 1972 to 1996 by Newport News Shipbuilding and General Dynamics Electric Boat, the last 23 boats to an improved standard known as 688i. The design was about 50 percent larger than the preceding Sturgeon class, with major improvements in stealth and speed so that the boats could keep up with carrier battle groups. The class also began the practice of naming United States attack submarines after cities rather than marine animals.

A Los Angeles-class boat displaces 6,927 tonnes submerged, is 110 meters long, carries a crew of 129 and makes 32 knots submerged on a single S6G reactor. Its armament comprises four 533 mm torpedo tubes, Mk 48 torpedoes and Mk 67 mines, and the Tomahawk land-attack missile. The boats also carry the Harpoon anti-ship missile. The last 31 boats, the Flight II and Flight III/688i submarines, added 12 dedicated vertical launch tubes for Tomahawk.

According to GlobalMilitary.net's 2026 snapshot, the 18 boats still in commission are all of the 688i standard and run from SSN-752, USS Pasadena, commissioned in 1989, to SSN-773, USS Cheyenne, commissioned in 1996. They serve alongside 26 Virginia-class boats, with two more fitting out. Three Seawolf-class submarines complete the attack force of 47 hulls. GlobalMilitary.net publishes a side-by-side comparison of the Los Angeles and Virginia classes.

The drawdown of the older class has continued through the anniversary year. GlobalMilitary.net's event log records four Los Angeles-class retirements in 2026. USS Newport News was decommissioned in January after nearly 37 years of service. On 10 April the Navy announced its decision to inactivate USS Boise.

USS Alexandria (SSN-757) held her inactivation ceremony on 29 June 2026, the 35th anniversary of her commissioning on 29 June 1991, the Navy said. The ceremony took place at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego, where she had been one of four Los Angeles-class boats assigned to Submarine Squadron 11. The 46th boat of the class, she completed 14 overseas deployments and steamed more than one million miles, according to the Navy.

USS San Juan (SSN-751) followed with a decommissioning ceremony at the U.S. Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Washington, on 6 August 2026, the Navy said in a photo caption.

Fifty years after the lead boat joined the fleet, the Virginia class is now the largest attack-submarine class in the US Navy, with 26 boats in commission and two fitting out. The 18 remaining 688i boats, commissioned between 1989 and 1996, continue to serve beside it.