US Navy officially receives Virginia-class submarine Indiana (SSN 789)

The US Navy has officially received the Virginia-class submarine Indiana (SSN 789) from Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding division.

The future USS Indiana (SSN 789) was delivered to the navy on June 25 as the 16th submarine in its class built as part of the teaming agreement with General Dynamics Electric Boat and the eighth delivered by Newport News.

“We are proud to deliver Indiana to the navy,” said Dave Bolcar, Newport News’ vice president of submarine construction. “For the nearly 4,000 shipbuilders who participated in construction of the boat, there is nothing more important than knowing that this vessel will support the Navy’s missions.”

Indiana, which began construction in September 2012, successfully completed sea trials earlier this month. The vessel will be commissioned in September this year.

Indiana is a part of the Virginia-class’ third, or Block III, contract, in which the navy redesigned approximately 20 percent of the ship to reduce acquisition costs. Indiana features a redesigned bow, which replaces 12 individual Vertical Launch System tubes with two large-diameter Virginia Payload Tubes each capable of launching six Tomahawk cruise missiles, among other design changes that reduced the submarines’ acquisition cost.

Indiana has special features to support SOF, including a reconfigurable torpedo room which can accommodate a large number of SOF and all their equipment for prolonged deployments and future off-board payloads. Also, in Virginia-class SSNs, traditional periscopes have been replaced by two photonics masts that host visible and infrared digital cameras atop telescoping arms.