The contract to build Tecumseh was awarded to the Electric Boat Division of the General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut, on 20 July 1961.

She proceeded via Pearl Harbor and the Panama Canal to the United States East Coast and arrived at Newport News, Virginia, on 8 November 1969.

Emerging from dry dock on 9 May 1970, Tecumseh underwent a thorough overhaul through that fall and winter before being assigned a new home port of Charleston, South Carolina, on 18 February 1971.

In 1992, Tecumseh off-loaded its missiles and participated in war games out of Charleston for training of attack boats and other Anti-Submarine warfare vessels or planes.

Tecumseh's port torpedo tubes and a large piece of pressure hull were preserved and are now on display at the Naval Undersea Museum at Keyport, Washington.