ATLANTA — Atlanta is way from the ocean, however it’s going to have a naval vessel named for it once more.
Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro introduced this week that the Navy will construct a Virginia-class assault submarine that will probably be generally known as the Atlanta.
It wasn’t instantly clear when the development will begin on the submarine, when it’s going to enter service, or how a lot it could value.
In August, the Navy awarded a $1.3 billion contract to the Common Dynamics Electrical Boat shipyard in Groton, Connecticut, to start out shopping for supplies for that and different submarines it’s going to ultimately construct.
The Navy has not too long ago been naming new submarines in its Virginia class for cities, together with Baltimore, San Francisco and Miami.
It could be the fifth Navy vessel named for Georgia’s largest metropolis. The primary was a Accomplice ironclad captured in 1863 and transformed to Union service in the course of the Civil Warfare. The latest was a Los Angeles-class nuclear assault submarine that served from 1982 to 1999.
“It has been 25 years for the reason that Navy has had a ship named after the proud legacy of town of Atlanta,” Del Toro stated in a speech on the Carter Heart in Atlanta.
Del Toro saluted the naval submarine service of former President Jimmy Carter, who simply turned 100. Carter, the one president who was a nuclear submariner, already has the Jimmy Carter, a Seawolf-class submarine, named for him. It was commissioned in 2005 and stays within the fleet.
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who has served in President Joe Biden’s administration, would be the ship’s sponsor.
“And wherever she sails, she is going to symbolize not solely the legacy of the proud ships who bore the identify USS Atlanta earlier than her, but in addition the 1000’s of Atlantans who’ve honorably and faithfully served the USA in uniform, as civil servants, and as activists to higher our nice nation,” Del Toro stated.
