Early in 1961, four sections—"A", "B", "C", and "D"—of AFDB‑7 were towed across the Atlantic Ocean to
Holy Loch, Scotland, where on 3 March 1961 the Navy established an important base for fleet ballistic submarines. A detachment of
Seabees from MCB-4 erected and assembled the four sections. Completed 10 November, the auxiliary floating drydock was placed in service as '''
Los Alamos (AFDB-7)'''. Assigned to
SUBRON 14,
Los Alamos began drydock service for the
FBM boats. Converted for use by
submarines, she had the following characteristics: • Displacement: • Length: • Draft: light, submerged • Complement: 143 • Armament: none Late in 1961 she carried out her first SSBN drydocking of . She then served submarines of the "Highland Squadron" at
Holy Loch. She supported refit and repair operations by submarine tenders , , , , and . In February 1964 she successfully completed the first "off center" docking of a
Polaris submarine. By providing keel blocks preset for two separate classes of
SSBN boats,
Los Alamos "added immeasurably to the site's repair flexibility." On 18 June 1966, section "F" was turned over to the
U.S. Army, where it was converted into a floating power plant at Kwajalein named
Andrew J Weber (BD-6235). On 1 October 1977,
Andrew J Weber was returned to the
U.S. Navy and reinstated on the
Naval Vessel Register as
YFP-14. Stricken from the
Naval Vessel Register on 29 May 1991, YFP-14 remained at Guam and was designated to be used in a Sinkex on 18 June 1998. YFP-14 was sunk southeast of Agana, Guam on 19 July 2001. The
Naval Vessel Register's entry for YFP-14 incorrectly indicates the vessel was sunk on 18 June 1998, that was the date the vessel was designated to be sunk. On 5 December 1994
Los Alamos was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register. It was disassembled into sections and returned to the United States, the remaining six original ABSD-7 sections ("A", "B", "C", "D", "E" and "G") were transferred to the Brownsville Navigation District, Texas on 11 August 1995. It remained in use as
Solomon Ortiz Dry Dock at Keppel AmFELS Shipyard, Brownsville, Texas until it was decommissioned and disposed of for scrapping in 2024 == References ==