Sunbird held sea trials at New London before moving to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard for modernization from August to October.

She then returned to New London until November, at which time she made a round trip recreational cruise to Bermuda, British West Indies.

Following an overhaul at the Boston Navy Yard, from January to March 1952, Sunbird operated along the east coast from Greenland to the Caribbean.

In March 1956, Sunbird assisted Skylark (ASR-20) in removing the destroyer Willis A. Lee (DL-4) from rocks in Narragansett Bay where she had been driven by a blizzard.

Sunbird had some of her rescue equipment removed in late November 1959 to enable the installation of two huge wire parbuckling nets and large racks.

The ship was detached on 20 May and proceeded to Spain and thence, on 27 June, to Holy Loch where she provided services for Submarine Squadron (SubRon) 16 until 22 July when she sailed for New London, arriving there on 1 August 1966.

Scorpion was not found, but the two ships did find three uncharted hulls, including a German World War II submarine.

During the period 12 February through 22 April 1986, Sunbird, in company with NR-1, participated in the search, location and recovery of debris and wreckage from the ill-fated Space Shuttle Challenger (STS-51L).

During this operation, Sunbird conducted numerous dives, recovering several pieces of shuttle debris, and providing surface support to NR-1, who ultimately located a part of the solid rocket booster suspected as the cause of this tragic casualty.

Sunbird was decommissioned on 30 September 1993, laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, and struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 2 November 1993.