The next Virginia-class attack submarine scheduled for delivery in 2018 will be named the USS Delaware in honor of the nation’s first state, the Navy said yesterday.
The future USS Delaware (SSN-791) would be the 19th of the Virginia class and the eighth and final of the Block 3 version of the warship. The SSN-791 will be the seventh to be named after the state and first since the 1923 decommissioning of a World War I battleship.
“I chose the name Delaware to honor the long-standing relationship between the Navy and our nation’s first state,” Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said. “It has been too long since there has been a USS Delaware in the fleet and this submarine will remind future deployed service members and state residents of their strong ties and many shared values for decades to come.”
Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution. The ship sponsor will be the wife of the Vice President Joe Biden, Jill.
“As a proud military mom, and a proud Delawarean, I am honored to sponsor the USS Delaware,” she said in a statement released by the Pentagon.
The future USS Delaware will be built by Huntington Ingalls Industries’ [HII] Newport News Shipbuilding division and General Dynamics [GD] Electric Boat. The ship is under contract from a fiscal 2008 multi-year procurement and the keel laying is scheduled for 2015, HII said.