The Yankee-class were subject to a wide variety of modifications; these ships have a different designation to the original model.

The Yankee class were quieter in the ocean than were their Hotel-class predecessors, and had better streamlining that improved their underwater performance.

This forward deployment of the SSBNs was seen to balance the presence of American, British, and French nuclear weapons kept in Western Europe and on warships (including nuclear submarines) in the surrounding Atlantic Ocean, including the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Atlantic.

The lead boat K-137 Leninets received its honorific name on 11 April 1970, two and one half years after being commissioned.

[citation needed] Because of their increasing age, and as negotiated in the SALT I, START I and START II treaties that reduce nuclear armaments of the United States and the Soviet Union, all boats of Yankee class were disarmed, decommissioned and sent to the nuclear ship scrapyards.