USS Guitarro SSN-665 Submarine ModelDive again with your shipmates in this USS Guitarro SSN-665 Submarine Model. Each piece is carved from wood and hand painted to provide a piece you’ll love.Length – 20 inchesMade from MahoganyUS Veteran Owned BusinessThe product is not intended to be used by children 12 years and younger.USS Guitarro (SSN-665), a Sturgeon-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the guitarro, a ray of the guitarfish family.Guitarro was used as the primary test bed for Tomahawk Cruise Missile testing from 1977 through 1984. Primary GD test conductor was Wiley Huffman. All torpedo tube launches were successful, but flight tests were failures. Following test bed used was USS-705 City of Corpus Cristi with Roy Keely as test conductor. All Tomahawk tests completed successfully.Construction and commissioning Keel-laying and launching The contract to build Guitarro was awarded to Mare Island Naval Shipyard at Vallejo, California, on 18 December 1964 and her keel was laid down there on 9 December 1965. She was launched on 27 July 1968, sponsored by Mrs. John M. Taylor, wife of Vice Admiral John Taylor.On 15 March 1969 during a meeting with the shipyard managers, Cmdr. William G. Lange urged them to create centralized control and designate responsibility for all construction. The shipyard representatives dismissed his idea, saying “the shipyard had been building ships for a long time without the need for such a procedure and no one had been killed or equipments damaged yet.”SinkingOn 15 May 1969, Guitarro was moored in the Napa River at Mare Island Naval Shipyard while construction was still underway. At about 16:00, a civilian nuclear construction group began to calibrate the aft ballast tanks, which required them to fill the tanks with approximately 5 short tons (4.5 t) of water. Within 30 min