The 25th Virginia-class hunter-killer, USS Massachusetts (SSN 798), was christened at Newport News over the weekend, with a tentative commissioning date of May 2024 in Boston. She will be the fifth such commissioned vessel (9th planned) named for the state filling the 61-year gap on the Navy List that was left when the SoDak class battlewagon USS Massachusetts (BB-59) was struck from the Naval Register on 1 June 1962.
HII photos:
Much as BB-59 was rushed into combat, it is possible that her follow-on namesake could come just in time to a war that she is much-needed.