TSAMTO, May 6. Huntington Ingalls Industries has announced the launch ceremony of a new multipurpose SSN-796 "New Jersey" class "Virginia" submarine held at the Newport News Shipbuilding enterprise.
The 7800-ton submarine, which had been in a floating dry dock since being transferred from the workshop in March, was launched and transferred to the mooring wall for completion and testing.
As reported by TSAMTO, SSN-796 "New Jersey" will be the 23rd submarine of the Virginia class and the 11th submarine of the series delivered by Newport News Shipbuilding. The construction of this submarine began in March 2016. The keel laying ceremony took place on March 25, 2019, and the baptism in November 2021. Currently, the degree of readiness of the submarine is 92%. As planned, the submarine will be transferred to the US Navy at the end of 2022.
Virginia–class submarines are multi-purpose submarines designed for operations at great and shallow depths, projecting military force, anti-submarine and anti-ship warfare, delivering small groups of MTRS to the place of operations, striking ground targets using Tomahawk sea-based cruise missiles, asymmetric warfare, conducting surveillance and reconnaissance, 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, for the US Navy, consistently improving combat capabilities, it is planned to build more than 30 submarines of the Virginia series (currently 38 submarines of the series have been ordered). 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 variant "Block.5", five boats in the "Block" variant.6" and five in the "Block.7".
To date, the US Navy has adopted 20 submarines: "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), "Vermont" (SSN-792), "Oregon" (SSN-793), built by General Dynamics Electric Boat, and also "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.
On March 14, 2022, Huntington Ingalls Industries transferred the SSN-794 "Montana" class "Virginia" to the command of the US Navy. "Montana" became the third submarine in the "Block.4".
