The fourth U.S. Navy vessel named for the state of Iowa, the future USS Iowa (SSN-797), was delivered to the Navy on 22 December 2024 and, as the Hawkeye State is slim on blue water ports, was commissioned at her homeport of Groton over the weekend.
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The last Iowa, the famed class-leading fast battleship BB-61, which was christened on 27 August 1942, was only stricken from the NVR on 17 March 2006 and endures as a floating museum at Los Angeles, the only West Coast battlewagon.
SSN-797 is the 24th Virginia class hunter killer delivered since 2004 and is the sixth advanced Block IV variant, which includes the big new LAB sonar array and 12 VLS cells.
She will join Submarine Squadron (SUBRON) 4 at Groton, which will include the USS Virginia (SSN 774), the USS South Dakota (SSN 790), the USS Hyman G Rickover (SSN 795), and the future PCU Idaho (SSN 799) and PCU Tang (SSN 805).
