Career
Ordered:	25 June 1968
Laid down:	10 December 1970
Launched:	13 January 1973
Commissioned:	17 August 1974
Decommissioned:	19 October 2004
Fate:	awaiting submarine recycling
Stricken:
General Characteristics
Displacement:	6038 tons light, 6475 tons full, 437 tons dead
Length:	90.8 metres (298 feet), extended to 122.4 metres (401 feet)
Beam:	9.7 metres (32 feet)
Draft:	8.8 metres (29 feet)
Propulsion:	S5W reactor
Speed:	20+ knots
Complement:	14 officers, 98 men, expanded to 22 officers, 157 men
Armament:	four 21-inch torpedo tubes
Motto:	Par Excellence
after extension; note length of bow

USS Parche (SSN-683), a Sturgeon-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the parche, a small, gorgeously colored butterfly fish, known for its uncanny ability to swim in and around coral heads and reefs. The fish can find its way through the most intricate passages by swimming upside down or on its side. The contract to build her was awarded to Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi on 25 June 1968 and her keel was laid down on 10 December 1970. She was launched on 13 January 1973 sponsored by Mrs. Philip A. Beshany, and commissioned on 17 August 1974, with Commander Richard N. Charles in command.

Parche served as a unit of Atlantic Submarine Force until 1976 before transferring to the Pacific Fleet. Once arriving at its new homeport at Mare Island, California, Parche received ocean engineering modifications.

11 years of history go here

From 1987 to 1991, Parche began the extended overhaul at Mare Island Naval Shipyard that refueled her and modified her for research and development. A one-hundred-foot-long extension was added to her hull just forward of her sail. The added section was flat-topped, looking somewhat like the missile deck of a ballistic missile submarine. The added equipment included an extensive array of signals-collecting antennas and electronic gear, as well as a remotely controlled grapple that could be lowered through a hatch in the boat's keel to retrieve objects from the ocean floor. The overhaul also added many auxiliary navigational and maneuvering features, including both upward and forward facing short-range sonars, and a suite of armored spotlights and closed-circuit television cameras for under-ice operations.

Upon completion of her modifications, she began a new mission as part of Submarine Development Squadron 5. Parche resumed Pacific Fleet operations in 1992 and was transferred to its new homeport at Naval Submarine Base Bangor, Washington, in November 1994.

ten years of research and development operations go here

ON 19 October 2004, Parche was decommissioned at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Her research and development duties will be assumed by Jimmy Carter (SSN-23), a Seawolf-class submarine whose construction period was extended to include modifications that will allow her to carry out the same types of research and development.

See USS Parche for other ships of the same name.

References

This article includes information collected from http://www.parche683.net/, which is dedicated to Parche before her modification, and from the Federation of American Scientists' Military Analysis Network, http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/ssn-683.htm

Further Reading

• Many references are made in Sherry Sontag — Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage, 1998, Harper, ISBN 0-06-103004-X