USA — Navy to Commission Submarine Missouri

The Navy’s newest attack sub­ma­rine, Mis­souri, will be com­mis­sioned Sat­ur­day, July 31, 2010, dur­ing an 11 a.m. EDT cer­e­mo­ny in Gro­ton, Conn. Mis­souri is named to hon­or the peo­ple of the “Show Me State” and its lead­ers for their con­tin­u­ous sup­port of the mil­i­tary.

Mis­souri Rep. Ike Skel­ton will deliv­er the ceremony’s prin­ci­pal address. Sec­re­tary of the Navy Ray Mabus and Chief of Naval Oper­a­tions Adm. Gary Roug­head will also deliv­er remarks. Becky Gates, wife of Sec­re­tary of Defense Robert Gates, will serve as the ship’s spon­sor. In the time-hon­ored Navy tra­di­tion she will give the first order to “man our ship and bring her to life!” 

Des­ig­nat­ed SSN 780, the sev­enth Vir­ginia class sub­ma­rine, Mis­souri is built to excel in anti-sub­ma­rine war­fare; anti-ship war­fare; strike war­fare; spe­cial oper­a­tions; intel­li­gence, sur­veil­lance, and recon­nais­sance; irreg­u­lar war­fare; bat­tle group sup­port; and mine war­fare mis­sions. Upon enter­ing ser­vice, Mis­souri will direct­ly enable five of the six Navy Mar­itime Strat­e­gy Core Capa­bil­i­ties: sea con­trol, pow­er pro­jec­tion, for­ward pres­ence, mar­itime secu­ri­ty, and deterrence. 

This is the fourth Navy ship to be named Mis­souri. The last USS Mis­souri, a leg­endary bat­tle­ship, saw action in World War II, the Kore­an War, the Per­sian Gulf War, and was also the site where Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz, Gen. Dou­glas MacArthur, and many oth­er U.S. and allied offi­cers accept­ed the uncon­di­tion­al sur­ren­der of the Japan­ese at the end of World War II. 

Cmdr. Tim­o­thy Rexrode of Spencer, W.Va., is the ship’s com­mand­ing offi­cer and will lead a crew of approx­i­mate­ly 134 offi­cers and enlist­ed per­son­nel. The 7,800-ton Mis­souri was built under a unique team­ing arrange­ment between Gen­er­al Dynam­ics Elec­tric Boat and Northrop Grum­man Ship­build­ing. The boat is 377-feet long, has a 34-foot beam, and will be able to dive to depths of greater than 800 feet and oper­ate at speeds in excess of 25 knots sub­merged. Mis­souri is designed with a reac­tor plant that will not require refu­el­ing dur­ing the planned life of the ship, reduc­ing life­cy­cle costs while increas­ing oper­a­tional availability. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

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