On the way home, "Barb" called at Hawaii for several days in the latter part of July, resuming the voyage home on the 25th. She arrived back in San Diego on 2 August. After several weeks of relative inactivity, the submarine embarked on a schedule of local operations highlighted by her selection as a test platform for the Tomahawk cruise missile in late October. She remained so occupied through the end of 1977 into the second quarter of 1978. On 26 April, the warship entered the Mare Island Naval Shipyard for a three-month availability. She resumed normal operations out of San Diego late in July and continued so engaged until deploying to the western Pacific once more on 27 September 1978. "Barb" spent the week between 3 and 10 October in Hawaii and then resumed her passage west arriving in Subic Bay on the 29th. She stayed in Subic Bay for three weeks and then set sail for Japan on 20 November. After four days of voyage repairs at Yokosuka, she returned to sea on 1 December for a month-long special operation that she concluded at Chinhae, Korea, on the last day of 1978.