Ship Sponsor Nikki Stratton (left foreground) and Electric Boat welder Bob Hobday (proper foreground) put together to weld Stratton’s initials right into a plate that can be positioned on the long run USS Arizona (SSN 803), in the course of the boat’s keel authentication ceremony on the Electric Boat Quonset Point Facility in North Kingstown, R.I., Dec. 7. The submarine would be the first U.S. naval vessel to bear the identify Arizona since battleship USS Arizona (BB 39) was sunk in the course of the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. [U.S. Navy photograph]
Yesterday, December 7, National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, senior Navy leaders, elected officers, and trade companions gathered at General Dynamics Electric Boat’s Quonset Point Facility, to attend a keel-authentication ceremony for future Virginia-class submarine USS Arizona (SSN 803).
The submarine would be the first U.S. naval vessel to bear the identify Arizona since battleship USS Arizona (BB 39) was sunk in the course of the assault on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. After being struck with a number of bombs, Arizona burned for 2 days and greater than 1.100 of her crew had been misplaced. The lives misplaced in the course of the assault at the moment are completely memorialized by the USS Arizona Memorial, erected over her sunken hull within the berth she has occupied since that historic day.
“The boats in this class are the most advanced attack submarines ever designed. Their stealth, firepower, and maneuverability are superior to every other attack submarine force in the world. Additionally, Arizona will be the first of the Virginia-class equipped with the Virginia Payload Module, enabling the submarine to deliver an even wider variety of capabilities,” stated Rear Adm. Jonathan Rucker, Program Executive Office, Attack Submarines. “Building, operating and maintaining Arizona and other Virginia-class subs is crucial to ensuring the Navy’s ability to project power in an ever-shifting global threat environment, and to maintaining peace and the free operation of our sea lanes.”
The ship’s sponsor, Nikki Stratton, is the granddaughter of Donald Stratton, who was serving as a Seaman First Class aboard Arizona in the course of the 1941 assault. Badly burned, he was discharged in 1942, however efficiently reenlisted in 1944 and returned to the Western Pacific serving aboard destroyer USS Stack (DD-406) to battle in New Guinea, the Philippines and the Battle of Okinawa. Stratton spent the rest of his life serving to honor those that gave their lives in the course of the assault on Pearl Harbor and different battles. He died on the age of 97, in February 2020.
In accordance with, Navy custom, the ship’s sponsor’s initials had been welded onto a metal plate to be completely mounted in a spot of honor on the finished vessel.
Arizona would be the thirtieth Virginia-class submarine. Boats on this class can hit shore-based targets with extremely correct Tomahawk cruise missiles and are able to long-term, stealth surveillance of sea forces, littoral waters or floor targets. Their design additionally offers for Special Forces supply and help, mine supply and minefield mapping, and anti-submarine and anti-ship warfare.
Arizona’s Virginia Payload Module will comprise 4 large-diameter, vertical payload tubes in a brand new hull part inserted into the present Virginia-class submarine design. The tubes allow the submarine to ship quite a lot of capabilities, together with weapons, unmanned undersea automobiles, and different undersea payloads.
