Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) on Nov. 21 announced its Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) Division has delivered the future USS Massachusetts (SSN-798) Virginia-class fast-attack submarine to the U.S. Navy.
The company noted this is the 12th Virginia-class boat NNS has delivered to the service. SSN-798 was first christened in May 2023 and is the fifth Navy vessel named for the state.
“Delivering Massachusetts after its rigorous sea trials is an important milestone commitment for our team this year,” NNS President Kari Wilkinson said in the press release. “We are absolutely steadfast in our resolve to increase the pace of submarine construction and see this as a solid step toward our overall objective.”
The press release said over 10,000 shipbuilders from NNS and Electric Boat helped build Massachusetts, and thousands of supplies nationwide supported the construction.
The Virginia-class submarine is planned to deploy the nuclear-armed, sea-launched cruise missile and include a variant of the W80-4 warhead, something the National Nuclear Security Administration is already working on.