Ross Wilkers
A Virginia-class submarine made by Huntington Ingalls Industries for the U.S. Navy has completed its first round of trials and evaluations at sea.
Minnesota operated on the surface and underwater during the alpha trials and will undergo two more rounds of tests, Huntington Ingalls said May 6.
The Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey will oversee one of those tests.
This submarine is the result of a lot of hard work by the shipbuilders here at Newport News, our teammates at Electric Boat, and the overall Navy organizational structure, including NAVSEA, SUPSHIP and ship’s force personnel,” said Jim Hughes, a Huntington Ingalls vice president of submarines and fleet support.
Electric Boat, the Groton, Conn.-based subsidiary of General Dynamics, and Huntington Ingalls hold contracts worth nearly $2.5 billion combined to build two Virginia-class submarines.
Huntington Ingalls expects to deliver Minnesota to the Navy about 11 months ahead of the contracted date.
