Navy names new sub for ex-Va. Sen. Warner - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Navy names new sub for ex-Va. Sen. Warner

The Navy’s next Virginia-class attack submarine is to be named for former Virginia Sen. John Warner, the Navy announced Thursday, the first break in the class convention of naming the subs after states.

Formerly known by its hull number, SSN 785, the Warner is to be the second Block III Virginia-class attack boat. It will include two large multi-purpose payload tubes forward, instead of 12 traditional vertical launch tubes for Tomahawk cruise missiles. It also will include upgraded sonar and other refinements.

Warner’s biography and long public career made him one of the best-known members of Congress. He served as a sailor in World War II and a Marine in Korea, was President Nixon’s Navy secretary, was married for six years to actress Elizabeth Taylor, and spent 30 years in the Senate. During his time in Congress, Warner was a consistent advocate for the Navy, which has its largest base and shipbuilding operations in his home state.

“[H]e has shown unwavering support for the men and women of the armed forces, and has been a champion of modernizing the structure and operations of the military to ensure its effectiveness in the 21st century,” according to the official announcement from the Defense Department.

Specifically, Warner’s advocacy for the unusual way in which Virginia-class submarines are built — half by the Northrop Grumman shipyard in Newport News, Va., and half by General Dynamics’ Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, Conn. — “was instrumental in developing this construction teaming arrangement concept, which was later codified into law,” the Defense Department announcement said.

Construction on the Warner is likely to begin in 2010.

This is not the first time the Navy has broken from its sub-naming convention. The second and third boats in the Seawolf class were named Connecticut and Jimmy Carter. The 23rd Los Angeles-class submarine was named Hyman G. Rickover, making it the only boat of its class not named for an American city. And the fifth Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine was originally to have been the Rhode Island, but it was renamed Henry M. Jackson after the Washington senator died in 1983.

Even before that, the Navy broke with its convention of naming attack submarines for sea creatures. The final two Sturgeon-class submarines were the L. Mendel Rivers and the Richard B. Russell, followed later by the one-of-a-kind experimental boat Glenard P. Lipscomb.