The Navy Just Launched Its Most Deadly Attack Submarine Ever

By Zachary Keck, The National Interest

The U.S. Navy has a new nuclear-powered attack submarine.

On Monday, June 25, the ship-builder Huntington Ingalls delivered the future USS Indiana (SSN 789) to the U.S. Navy. The delivery was four months late, originally being scheduled for February of this year.

According toDefense News, “supplier issues, a doubled production rate and cuts to production time from 84 months to 66 month” contributed to the delay. The Navy expects to commission the sub in September 2018, the Naval Sea Systems Command said in a news article announcing the delivery.

The USS Indiana is the latest Virginia-class submarine, the U.S. Navy’s most advanced nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSNs). It is the sixteenth Virginia-class submarine to be delivered. It is also the sixth of the Virginia-class Block III submarines. As the Naval Sea Systems Command explained in the aforementioned press release:

“Block III submarines feature a redesigned bow with enhanced payload capabilities, replacing 12 individual vertical-launch tubes with two large-diameter Virginia Payload Tubes, each capable of launching six Tomahawk cruise missiles. The redesign also incorporates a Large-Aperture Bow (LAB) water-backed array, which replaces the traditional air-backed spherical array. These, among other design changes, reduced the submarines’ acquisition cost while maintaining their outstanding warfighting capabilities.”

The Virginia-class SSNs are 377 feet in length and thirty-four feet by beam. Each ship displaces 7,800 tons while submerged, far less than America’s Seawolf SSNs, and cruises at more than twenty-five knots.

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