Name announced for US Navy’s 40th Virginia-class submarine
US Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro recently confirmed that the future Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarine SSN 813 will be named USS Atlanta.
The future USS Atlanta honors the city of Atlanta, Georgia, as well as the crews of the five previous US Navy vessels also named Atlanta.
The naming selection of the future USS Atlanta continues the trend of naming Virginia-class submarines after cities. Secretary Del Toro previously named USS Long Island, USS San Francisco, USS Miami, and USS Baltimore.
Like its sisters, the 40th Virginia-class submarine will be capable of supporting multiple mission areas and can operate at speeds of more than 25 knots for months at a time.
The submarine will operate in littoral and deep waters while conducting anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface ship warfare, strike warfare, special operations forces support, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), irregular warfare, and mine warfare missions.
The Virginia-class submarines were conceived as a less expensive alternative to the Seawolf-class boats, which were designed during the Cold War era, and are replacing older Los Angeles-class submarines.
