USS Massachusetts – with means to hold 24 Tomahawk cruise missiles – joins Navy fleet | EUROtoday

The USS Massachusetts formally joined the US Navy fleet on Saturday following its commissioning ceremony, turning into the primary submarine named after the Bay State.

This latest Virginia-class quick assault submarine, able to diving to depths better than 800 toes (240 metres), was christened on 6 May 2023. Sheryl Sandberg, the previous chief working officer of Meta, served because the ship’s sponsor.

It is the twenty fifth Virginia-Class submarine co-produced by General Dynamics Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding, and the fifth US Navy vessel total to be named after Massachusetts.

“To be able to take a ship from new construction and watch it be built together by the ship yard, train with our team and bring into Boston Harbor for the first time, it’s very amazing,” mentioned the sub’s commanding officer, Mike Siedsma, a 21-year Navy veteran who has frolicked on 4 completely different courses of submarines. “I looked at the history books. I don’t think we’ve had a submarine in Boston Harbor since sometime in the late ’80s or early ’90s.”

Siedsma didn’t say the place the sub — which value over $2.8 billion, weighs about 8,000 tons and may carry 24 Tomahawk cruise missiles — is headed. A U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka earlier this month within the struggle with Iran.

“The geopolitical situation is very interesting,” Siedsma mentioned. “What is important to remember is what we are doing is proving the power of the United States Navy.”

The crew of 147 additionally consists of 39 girls, 16 years after a ban on girls serving on submarines was lifted. The USS New Jersey, which was commissioned in 2024, was the primary sub designed and constructed with modifications for a gender-integrated crew.

“The ship is intentionally designed to be served on by both women and men. That is pretty exciting. Twenty five percent of this crew is female,” Sandberg mentioned. “Those sailors just don’t inspire me. They inspire every little girl out there to believe that she could do anything.”

The Navy mentioned that is the fifth vessel to be named after the state. The first USS Massachusetts was a steamer inbuilt 1845 and the final was USS Massachusetts, BB 59, commissioned in 1942 as a South Dakota-class quick battleship. Most of its time was spent within the Pacific throughout World War II.

For Sandberg, the commissioning additionally dropped at thoughts the position the state has performed within the founding of the United States and the way “people are still fighting for the same freedoms that the original colonists were fighting for.”

Reporters touring the sub had been led previous the management room, down into the torpedo room and into the eating corridor. The ward room, the place officers eat, additionally includes a mug rack that includes wooden from counties in Massachusetts. It was donated by “This Old House,” the tv dwelling enchancment present.

“It was an incredible donation. Very great connection to the state and the commonwealth,” Siedsma mentioned. “It’s beautiful.”