USS Asheville (SSN-758), is a nuclear powered fast attack submarine. She is the fourth vessel of the United States Navy to be named for Asheville, North Carolina. The contract to build her was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia on 26 November 1984 and her keel was laid down on 9 January 1987. She was launched on 24 February 1990, sponsored by Mrs. Dorothy Helms, and commissioned on 28 September 1991. Asheville was fitted with a developmental Advanced Mine Detection System (AMDS) high-frequency active sonar array with transmitters and receivers in the sail and in a disc-shaped chin sonar dome beneath the hull at the bow. The system is used for target detection, mine avoidance, and bottom navigation. After a highly successful testing period the system was removed during overhaul in 2003. Ship's history 1990s In December 1996, Asheville served as a trials platform for the Northrop Grumman Sea Ferret reconnaissance drone. After Asheville simulated an underwater launch, a Cessna 206 test aircraft flew over the area of operations with the Sea Ferret attached to its underside. Technicians aboard Asheville transmitted commands to the Sea Ferret, which were received and responded to by the Cessna pilot. Control of the drone was then passed back and forth among the Asheville team, USMC First Force RECON, and a United States Army Aviation team, with all three teams continuing to receive a continuous flow of sensor data. In August 1998 Asheville returned from a six-month Western Pacific Deployment (WESTPAC). After a 30-day stand down, she entered an extended maintenance period at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard remaining there until the beginning 1999. Almost immediately after the maintenance period Asheville began a work-up for another six-month deployment to the Western Pacific. This work-up included various underway periods, for weekly operations. At the end of May 1999, Asheville conducted two family day cruises. The first left Pearl Harbor and steamed to Lahaina, Maui. Asheville anchored a mile off the Maui coast for five days. She returned to Pearl Harbor, at the end of the week, with the second group of family members aboard. In July 1999, she deployed to the Eastern Pacific (EASTPAC) for two months, continuing work-ups with the Carrier Strike Group (CSG). During this deployment, she visited San Diego, CA, Esquimalt and Victoria, British Columbia, and Ketchikan, Alaska. While conducting sound testing off the coast of Ketchikan,