USS Vermont (SSN 792) Virginia-class attack submarine boosts US Navy military power

US Vermont, the first of 10 Virginia-class Block IV submarines, has been commissioned on April 18, 2020. The new class design diminishes production expense and enables the Navy to extend the time between maintenance pauses and deployments. It carries Mark 48 advanced capability torpedoes and Tomahawk cruise missiles

Production began in May 2014, and Vermont will provide the Navy the capacities needed to keep the nation’s undersea supremacy.

Vermont multi-purpose sub performs seven crucial tasks of the submarine force: anti-submarine; anti-surface; delivery of special operations forces; strike; irregular combat; ISR; and mining. The U.S. Vermont is 377 feet long, has a 34-foot beam, and reaches depths higher than 800 feet and cruises at over 25 knots immersed.

Vermont’s commanding officer Cmdr. Charles W. Phillips III appreciated the crew’s hard work and promise over the past weeks’ initial sea tests; also, he praised ship sponsor Valdez, and the USS Vermont Commissioning Committee, led by Debra Martin.

“We recognize just how important the submarine force is during this era of Great Power Competition, … As replacement of the nation’s maritime asymmetric advantage over our competitors, we are ready to perform whatever duty is most needed.”
Cmdr. Charles W. Phillips III,

General Dynamics Electric Boat GDEB, a wholly-owned subsidiary of General Dynamics, built the nuclear-powered attack submarine Vermont. Kevin Graney, GDEB President, announced the company’s workers proudness in the delivery to the U.S. Navy of Vermont.

“Vermont has received some of the highest quality ratings in the history of the Virginia program.”

Kevin Graney, GDEB President

USS Vermont becomes the third U.S. Navy vessel named equally to the Green Mountain State. In 1816, first Vermont was one of the nine 74-gun warships commissioned by Congress. A next Vermont Battleship (No. 20), commissioned in 1907 and stationed in December of the same year, joined the “Great White Fleet” and decommissioned on June 30, 1920.