The contract to build Sturgeon was awarded to the Electric Boat Division, of General Dynamics Corporation, in Groton, Connecticut, on 30 November 1961, and her keel was laid down there on 10 August 1963.

She was launched on 26 February 1966, sponsored by Louella Carver, the wife of United States Senator Everett Dirksen, of Illinois, and commissioned on 3 March 1967.

[2] Sturgeon spent a month conducting refresher training and then began her shakedown cruise on 3 April 1967, down the United States East Coast and to Puerto Rico.

On 22 January 1968, she began a five-week antisubmarine warfare (ASW) exercise to evaluate the relative effectiveness of Sturgeon-class and Permit-class attack submarines.

She visited the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, in March 1969, and then held an intensive training period for her crew before deploying from May to July 1969.

[2] Sturgeon returned to sea for local operations from 17 July to 1 October 1973, when she entered the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, at Kittery, Maine, to effect bow repairs.

She operated from New London, until 13 August 1974, when she departed for Norfolk, Virginia, to join other fleet units participating in Atlantic Readiness Exercise 1-75.

[2] Sturgeon stood out to sea on 29 November 1974, en route to the Mediterranean, and a scheduled six-month deployment there with the United States Sixth Fleet.

Her scrapping via the Nuclear-Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, at Bremerton, Washington, was completed on 11 December 1995.