Christening Missouri (SSN-780)
General Dynamics Electric Boat will christen Missouri (SSN-780), the U.S. Navy’s newest and most advanced nuclear attack submarine, at a ceremony at its Groton shipyard on Saturday, Dec. 5, at 11 a.m. Electric Boat is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD). Mrs. Rebecca W. Gates is the ship’s sponsor. She is the wife of Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates. The event’s principal speaker is U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). Cmdr. Timothy A. Rexrode, a 1990 honors graduate of West Virginia University, is the ship’s commanding officer. The Missouri is the seventh ship of the Virginia Class, the first U.S. Navy combatant designed for the post-Cold War era. Unobtrusive, non-provocative and connected with land, air, sea and space-based assets, Missouri and the other Virginia-class submarines are equipped to wage multi-dimensional warfare around the globe, providing the U.S. Navy with continued dominance in coastal waters and the open ocean. With its construction partner Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, the company has contracts to build a total of 18 Virginia-class ships; 30 ships are planned altogether.
A live video and audio webcast of the Missouri christening will be accessible online at www.gdeb.com. Webcast coverage will begin Saturday at 10:30 a.m. EST; the ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. and conclude at approximately noon. The program will be available for on-demand replay for one week, beginning at approximately 2:30 p.m. EST on Saturday.
General Dynamics, headquartered in Falls Church, Va., employs approximately 92,300 people worldwide. The company is a market leader in business aviation; land and expeditionary combat systems, armaments and munitions; shipbuilding and marine systems; and information systems and technologies.