The fast-attack submarine USS Santa Fe returned to its home base in San Diego Bay on Tuesday, ending a six-month deployment in which the boat vertically surfaced through the ice in the Arctic Circle.
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The highly dangerous maneuver occurred in March as part of an exercise to test the ability of submarines to operate beneath the ice. It was tied to a larger program, known as Operation Ice Camp Boarfish, in which the Navy operates from a drifting ice floe in the Beaufort Sea.
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Santa Fe, a 360-foot boat that carries a crew of 140, is nearing the end of its service life. It was commissioned in 1994. But the Navy has yet to announce plans to decommissioning the vessel.
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