USS Benjamin Franklin (SSBN 640), the lead ship of her class of ballistic missile submarine, was the only submarine of the United States Navy to be named for Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.a The contract to build Benjamin Franklin was awarded to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut, on 1 November 1962 and her keel was laid down there on 25 May 1963.

On 6 December 1965, the Gold Crew successfully launched a Polaris A-3 ballistic missile in close coordination with an orbital pass of the Gemini 7 astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell.

[2] Benjamin Franklin was decommissioned on 23 November 1993 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register the same day.

Her scrapping via the Nuclear-Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program in Bremerton, Washington, was completed on 21 August 1995.

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