USS Puffer (SSN-652), a Sturgeon-class nuclear attack submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the pufferfish, a saltwater fish with toxic spines that can inflate its body with water or air and is one of the most poisonous vertebrates in the world.

On 22 May 1978 a valve was mistakenly opened releasing up to 500 US gallons (1,900 L; 420 imp gal) of radioactive water into Puget Sound, during an overhaul in drydock at Bremerton Naval Shipyard.

After returning to Pearl Harbor from her 1980 Westpac cruise, USS Puffer conducted local operations from November 1980 to May 1981, when the submarine went into a Selected Restricted Availability (SRA) which was completed in August 1981.

Her scrapping via the Nuclear-Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton, Washington, began on 20 October 1996 and was completed on 28 March 1997.

Puffer's fairwater planes can be seen as part of The Fin Project, a permanent outdoor art installation on the shore of Lake Washington in Seattle, at Magnusson Park.