TSAMTO, September 1. The command of the US Navy announced the official commissioning ceremony of the new Virginia-class submarine (SSN-792) "Vermont", which took place on August 28 at the submarine base in New London.
"Vermont" is the 19th Virginia-class submarine adopted for service and the first of 10 submarines of the Block version series planned for construction.4".
Construction of the SSN-792 began at the General Dynamics Electric Boat company in Groton (pc.Connecticut) in May 2014, the baptism ceremony was held on October 20, 2018.
Due to the accepted restrictions on holding mass events in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, on April 18, 2020, the US Navy introduced the submarine into the combat fleet in an administrative order. Now it was decided to hold an official ceremony, although with some restrictions.
The Virginia-class submarines are multi-purpose submarines designed for operations at large and small depths, projecting military power, anti-submarine and anti-ship warfare, delivering special operations forces units to the place of operations, striking ground targets using Tomahawk sea-based cruise missiles, asymmetric warfare, conducting surveillance and reconnaissance, and installing sea mines.
The Virginia-class submarines are being built in accordance with a cooperation agreement signed by General Dynamics Electric Boat and HII Newport News Shipbuilding. In total, it is planned to build more than 30 submarines of the Virginia series for the US Navy, consistently improving its combat capabilities (38 submarines of the series have been ordered at the moment). In addition to 18 submarines built in the variants "Block. 1", " Block.2 "and" Block.3", it is planned to build 10 submarines in the "Block.4", 10 in the "Block" option.5", five boats in the "Block" variant.6" and five in the "Block" option.7".
To date, 18 submarines have been transferred to the US Navy: "Virginia" (SSN-774), "Hawaii" (SSN-776), "New Hampshire" (SSN-778), "Missouri" (SSN-780), "Mississippi" (SSN-782), "North Dakota" (SSN-784), "Illinois" (SSN-786), "Colorado" (SSN-788), "South Dakota" (SSN-790), built by General Dynamics Electric Boat, as well as "Texas" (SSN-775), "North Carolina" (SSN-777), "New Mexico" (SSN-779), "California" (SSN-781), "Minnesota" (SSN-783), "John Warner" (SSN-785), "Washington" (SSN-787), "Indiana" (SSN-789) and "Delaware" (SSN-791), built at the Newport News Shipbuilding shipyard.
The length of the submarine's hull is 114.5 m( 377 ft), the width is 10.4 m, the displacement is 7835 tons, the diving depth exceeds 243 m, the speed in the underwater position is more than 25 knots, the crew is more than 130 people. The nuclear submarine reactor does not require reloading with nuclear fuel during the planned service life (33 years), which reduces operating costs and increases the duration of combat missions.
APL version " Block.4 " received a number of design changes, the purpose of which is to reduce the total cost and increase operational readiness by increasing the inter-repair service life.