USN commissions USS Hawaii

The second Virginia class sub joins the fleet

It's good to see the ship comissioned in a public service..No secrects there..

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This class, the Virginia-class fully embraces the new strategic concept in ... From the Sea and Forward... From the Sea. It is the first U.S. submarine to be designed for battlespace dominance across a broad spectrum of regional and littoral missions as well as open-ocean, 'blue water' missions. The Virginia-class achieves the right balance of core military capabilities and affordability.

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I wish the USN would build at least 12 of these ships. Presently there are 3 in comission and 3 under construction. With ,I believe only three more planned after that.

bd popeye said:

I wish the USN would build at least 12 of these ships. Presently there are 3 in comission and 3 under construction. With ,I believe only three more planned after that.

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I would think that at a later point more (probably improved) Virginias will be ordered.
The LAs have/had a projected service life of 30 years, and the last was commissioned in 1996. So I think the USN currently is not in a hurry here. The Vs can be utilized for special missions in the littorals while the LAs can patrol the open seas for some years to come.

bd popeye said:

It's good to see the ship comissioned in a public service..No secrects there..

I wish the USN would build at least 12 of these ships. Presently there are 3 in comission and 3 under construction. With ,I believe only three more planned after that.

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Actually, these first nine you refer to popeye are from what is known as "Batch 1" of the NSSN, or the Virginia class. THose nine are hulls SSN-774 through SSN-782.

The first three vessels of batch 2 are already funded and ordered...but construction has not started yet. They are SSN-783 (to be commissioned in April 2014), SSN-784 (to be commissioned in April 2015), and SSN-785 (to be commissioned in October 2015). There will be ten of these Batch 2 boats.

Batch three, starting ordering in 2011 and commissioning in 2017, will have 11 boats. That will make 30 all together.

Jeff, Thanks for clearing that up for me. I was under the assumption there would be only 9 boats with possibly 3 more later.

I hope in the future congress does not divert the funding for this fine class of submarines.