USS Bonita (SF-6/SS-165), a Barracuda-class submarine and one of the "V-boats," was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for the bonito.

Like her sisters, Bonita was designed to meet the fleet submarine requirement of 21 knots (39 km/h) surface speed for operating with contemporary battleships.

The latter were primarily for charging batteries, but to reach maximum surfaced speed, they could augment the mechanically coupled main-propulsion engines by supplying supplemental power to the 1,200 hp (890 kW) electric motors that were intended for submerged propulsion.

Although it wasn't until about 1939 that its problems were fully solved, electric transmission in a pure diesel-electric arrangement became the propulsion system for the successful fleet submarines of World War II, the Porpoise-class, and the Tambor-class through the Tench-class.

Bonita rejoined SubDiv 12 in September 1933 and cruised in Caribbean Sea, West Coast, and Hawaiian waters through 1936.