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Career
Awarded:	13 August 1981
Laid down:	5 January 1983
Launched:	13 October 1984
Commissioned:	27 October 1986
Fate:	Active in service as of 2007
Homeport:	Pearl Harbor
Motto	Windy City
General characteristics
Displacement:	5759 tons light, 6162 tons full, 403 tons dead
Length:	110.3 m (362 ft)
Beam:	10 m (33 ft)
Draft:	9.4 m (31 ft)
Propulsion:	one S6G reactor
Complement:	12 officers, 98 men

USS Chicago (SSN-721) is a Los Angeles-class submarine, the fourth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the city of Chicago, Illinois. The contract to build her was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia on 13 August 1981 and her keel was laid down on 5 January 1983. She was launched on 13 October 1984 sponsored by Mrs. Vicki Ann Paisley, and commissioned on 27 October 1986, with Commander Robert Avery in command.

Early in 1996, an RQ-1 Predator aerial reconnaissance drone was successfully controlled from Chicago. The drone reached altitudes up to 6000 meters (20,000 ft) and ranged up to 185 kilometers (100 nmi.) from the submarine, which was operating at periscope depth.

In the summer of 2005, Chicago tested the Virtual Periscope, a system that would allow submerged submarines to observe the surface above them without having to come to a shallower depth, as is required by traditional periscopes. A small camera mounted on the sail of the submarine uses the surface of the ocean as a lens, collecting light from above the surface and refracting it below. High-speed signal processing software assembles an image of what is on the surface. Its resolution doesn't allow ship identification, only that something is on the surface. Objects 30 meters (100 feet) tall can be seen at about a distance of 1600 meters (one mile). Sufficient light is available when a camera is shallower than 30 to 60 meters (100 to 200 feet).

• Meritorious Unit Commendation(3)
• Navy "E" Ribbon Submarine Squadron Battle 'E' (4)
• Navy Expeditionary Medal
• National Defense Medal
• Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal
• Southwest Asian Service Medal (2)
• Sea Service Ribbon (3)
• Kuwait Liberation Medal (Saudi Arabia)
• Kuwait Liberation Medal (Kuwait)

• CDR. Robert Avery (1985-1988)
• CDR. Stanley Szemborski (1988-1990)
• CDR. Glenn Ward (1990-1993)
• CDR. Stephen E. Johnson (1993-1995)
• CDR. David B. Schubert (1995-1997)
• CDR. John C. Mickey (1997-2000)
• CDR. Daniel E. Prince(2000-2002)
• CDR. Craig Selbrede (2002-2004)
• CDR. Richard Wortman (2004-2006)
• CDR. Rick Stoner (2006-Present)

• EMCM(SS) Lester S. Pitman (1987-1990)
• MMCM(SS) Conrad Gillaspie (1996-1997)
• ETCS(SS) Timothy R. McVeigh (1997)
• ETCM(SS) Philip Moore (1997-2000)

The USS Chicago Undocking from Arco ARDM-5 in San Diego, CA. Its nose had the Chicago Bulls logo in Chalk on it done by the CHOP

USS Chicago was featured prominently in the 1986 Tom Clancy novel Red Storm Rising, accounting for several submarine and surface warship kills and launching cruise missiles against military airfields inside the Soviet Union.

• http://www.submarinesailor.com/
• http://www.csp.navy.mil/
• http://www.navybuddies.com/ssn/ssn721.htm

This article includes information collected from the public domain sources Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships and Naval Vessel Register.