
The Navy accepted delivery of the eighth and last Block III Virginia-class submarine, the future USS Delaware (SSN-791), on Oct. 25. Construction on SSN-791 started in 2013 and it is set to be commissioned in April 2020. As a Block III vessel, SSN-791 will feature a redesigned bow that replaces 12 individual vertical launch tubes with two large-diameter Viginia Payload Tubes that can launch six Tomahawk missiles each as well as a water-backed large-aperture bow sonar array in place of…