
Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII] Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) held a ceremony on May 23 for its first cut-of-steel event to mark the start of advance construction for the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) program. HII noted this will be the first class of submarines that will be built using fully digital blueprints. The first steel plate will be used in the lead boat, the future USS Columbia (SSN-826). This occured at its Newport News, Va., facility. “Today is a historic…