Navy's newest nuclear sub officially dubbed 'USS Washington'
SEATTLE -- The Navy's newest nuclear submarine now bears the name of our state.
Governor Jay Inslee was joined by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus at Thursday's naming ceremony for the USS Washington.
Construction on the sub is currently under way in Virginia.
This is the second Navy vessel to be named not after George Washington, but after the state.
The nuclear-powered submarine is 377 feet long and carries cruise missiles.
Governor Jay Inslee was joined by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus at Thursday's naming ceremony for the USS Washington.
Construction on the sub is currently under way in Virginia.
This is the second Navy vessel to be named not after George Washington, but after the state.
The nuclear-powered submarine is 377 feet long and carries cruise missiles.
The story has it wrong -- this is the fourth ship named after the state - the other three:
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1) ACR-11 - an armored cruiser (somewhat between a battleship and cruiser in fighting power). Launched in 1905 and commisioned in 1906. She had a long, if somewhat undistinguished career. Renamed the "Seattle" in 1916 to free up the name "Washington for BB47. She survived until 1946 as a receiving ship. Scrapped that year.
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2) BB-47. Same class as the Maryland and West Virginia and would have been commissioned in the early 1920s. Sruck down by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1921-22 and, when about 75% complete, was sunk as a target.
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3) BB-56. Commission in 19412 and had a very distinguished WWII career. Sank the Japanese battleship "Kirishima" off Guadalcanal in November, 1942. Read Ivan Musicant's excellent book, "Battleship at War", if interested.
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The new Washington has some big "shoes" to fill and I wish her a long life and smooth sailing.
The other nuke sub with a name from our state is the USS Olympia (SSN-717)
The sub i was on was in service for almost 30 years. Thats a long time to be steaming around under water. Go Submariners, Go Navy
I'm just pleased we have a vessel named after the state again! Whoo-ho!
Damn good looking Submarine "SSN787"....hope those parts were not made in China,
Japan,Italy or somewhere else !!
 @scychan And hopefully, the batteries were not made by Boeing :-)
@RN1 @scychan Boeing didn't make their faulty batteries either...just so you know.
But I think it's rather comical to see 787 as the boat number...weird, just plain weird.
Its unfortunate that previous USS Washingons havent been able to enjoy long illustrious careers. BB-47 'Washington', for instance, was under construction before being used as a gunnery target. The last USS Washington (BB-56) was only seven years afloat before being decommissioned in 1947 and sold for scrap. Heres to hoping this USS Washington has a long service life.
 @DarkRenegade BB-56 was decommisioned in 1947 yes but was in the reserve fleet until 1960 and was scrapped in 1961.
@DarkRenegade: I too hope the USS Washington SSN 787 has a long and illustrious career. However, I do have one correction for you. The USS Washington BB 56 did have a very illustrious career during WWII. She and her crew were highly decorated many times over. But because WWII came to an end so did the Washington and many other ships of war. The Navy had 4 brand spanking new Iowa class battleships and didn't need any more. So the Navy did what as most expedient, mothball and reduce to scrap those vessels they didn't need or want.
Beautiful boat and I am proud as an American that she will be in our NAVY but I am curious: If we are 17 trillion in debt how then is this being paid for?Â
@Rick4001CS: How is this being paid for? The usual way. Just because the nation is in debt doesn't mean we don't have any money. And just like businesses we us cash flow. We still have tax moneys coming in and if their is a short fall we borrow it from whoever is willing to float us a loan. Be it countries like China, or citizens buying savings bonds, or citizens and corporations buying treasury bills.
And King County was named after MLK.
Eventually...
'Cept the garbage bags/containers. That SNAFU cost us thousands of dollars. Whatever...
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It's not their money after all.
O.K., this is going to get a little confusingâ¦. My last deployment before I retired in â93 was onboard CVN-73 â an aircraft carrier, the USS âGeorgeâ Washingtonâ¦. and sheâs still steaming right along. I realize that olâ George isnât the state, but it is going to be confusing when it comes to messages, mail and ordersâ¦.
 @dome200q Wouldnt the confusion be a moot point since most ships are referred to by nicknames with Naval personnel? At least those Ive known refer to their previous assignments in that format for conversations and communications.
@DarkRenegade
Ahhhh, would it if it could only be trueâ¦â¦. Yet never underestimate the abilities of a junior sailor to create an error, either new or rare one â or even an experienced one for that matterâ¦.. made my share too (ever have a cup of coffee made from a salt water tap? Not the way to impress your DivO on your first day in the officeâ¦..).
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You are right, we have nicknames for our boats (my shipmates and I always called our ship a boat â donât know why), and those names are known throughout the fleet. Sometimes nicknames migrate to other names over the course of time, mostly not. My first ship was the Kitty Hawk, CVA-63) and Her nickname was pronounced with a Sh instead of a K itty, as in sh itty Kitty, then the âCoral Maruâ instead of the Coral Sea, the âBig Eâ instead of Enterprise, and then the âGWâ instead of George Washington.
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Thing is, official Naval messages and correspondence are normally scrubbed clean of any slang or non-military terms unless germane to the message, yet âstuffâ happens. Case in point, during WW2, to increase the difficulty of messages being decoded by the Japanese, some extra nonsense words were always added into the radio traffic.Â
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During a particular difficult battle, Admiral Bull Halsey was decoyed into leaving his patrol area by chasing a Japanese decoy carrier group, allowing a different Japanese surface BB force to attack our beachhead (and Taffy 3) and when the Admiral (of the escort carrier group Taffy 3) was under attack, he sent Halsey a message asking âwhere are you?â Those nonsense words? âThe whole world wondersâ Those four words shamed Halsey into breaking off his chase, even though there was no possibility of returning in time to even catch Japanese stragglers. It is not known if those words where chosen by some enlisted radioman or not.
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Thing is â supposing an overworked young yeoman is tasked to cut orders transferring a man to the âWashingtonâ by an equally overworked Ensign, but the officer didnât specify WHICH Washington, and the yo-yo thought he had a handle on that word exchange â stuff happens. It could happen with a ship too. Would never happen? And it would never happen that both the Sixth Fleet or the Seventh Fleet would lose an aircraft carrier, but they lost the Enterprise for one week when I was aboard in â86.
 @dome200q SSN 787 vs CVN 73 is pretty easy to distinguish apart.
@RTNavy
Begging your pardon, I made the shake-down cruise in 93. She's too young to have been struck from the rolls.
Keel laid:Â 25 August 1986
Commissioned: 04 July 1992
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I see you deleted your post..... Did my time, I even remember the SSBN G Washington, so I am well aware of the differances between classes of ships/boats. Still will end up being confusing, especially to some harried Yo-Yo when time is short and job is long....
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Welcome to the fleet!
787??? I'm not touching that joke.
 @m4a2000 Why? Too hot for you? Or do you think you just can't make the joke fly? Don't think it'll pass a battery of tests? Have any shocking revelations about it?
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Sorry. I had to do that.