Huntington Ingalls Industries' Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) division laid the keel of the future US Navy attack submarine USS Barb in a ceremony on Tuesday, December 9.
The submarine will be the third in the US Navy to be named after the tiger barb (P. tetrazona), a species of tropical fish. She will also be the navy's 31st Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarine as well as the 15th boat in the class to be delivered by NNS.
As with her Virginia-class sisters, the submarine will be capable of operating in littoral and deep waters. Missions will include anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface ship warfare, strike warfare, special operations forces support, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, irregular warfare, and mine warfare.
Upon completion, the future Barb will measures 377 feet (114 metres) long and 34 feet (10.3 metres) wide. She will be able to dive to depths greater than 800 feet (240 metres).
The Virginia-class submarines were conceived as a less expensive alternative to the Seawolf-class boats, which were designed during the Cold War era, and are replacing the older Los Angeles-class submarines.
Construction of the Virginia-class boats is being undertaken by NNS as part of the teaming agreement with General Dynamics Electric Boat, which is the prime contractor for the construction of nuclear-powered submarines for the US Navy.
