Bainbridge made Sea Orbit a nuclear status demonstration

Bainbridge's nuclear propulsion and long service make the design family's ambitions especially clear. She sailed with Enterprise and Long Beach during Operation Sea Orbit, forming part of an all-nuclear group that circumnavigated the world in 1964. The voyage displayed US naval reach and set a public benchmark for the Soviet Union's later nuclear fleet. The Soviet Union announced a nuclear-submarine circumnavigation a few years later, continuing the competition over capability, prestige, and status. Operation Sea Orbit used nuclear propulsion to project status as well as to sustain the voyage.