The Navy today revealed that its next Virginia-class, nuclear-powered submarine, SSN-812, will be called the USS Baltimore. The service also announced that Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks would serve as the vessel’s sponsor. 

During a naming ceremony today aboard the historic USS Constellation, a Navy warship built in 1854 that now serves as a museum ship in Baltimore Harbor, Carlos Del Toro, the secretary of the Navy, announced the name of the new submarine and that Hicks would serve as sponsor once it was constructed. 

“The ship’s sponsor fills a critical role throughout the life of a warship, serving as the bond between the ship, her crew and the nation they serve,” Del Toro said.  “I can think of no one more fitting to take on this vital role, no one with more resilience and grit and whose spirit embodies that of Baltimore than Deputy [Defense] Secretary Hicks.” 

Growing up in a Navy family, Hicks was exposed to the world of submarines early on.  Her father, retired Rear Adm. William J. Holland, was a submariner who served on a variety of nuclear-powered submarines. 

“Like all prospective nuclear submariners in those days, he was personally interviewed by [Navy] Adm. [Hyman G.] Rickover, the father of the nuclear navy,” Hicks said.  “Throughout [his] career, the submarine community was more than just his professional home. It was a family support system; one in which my mother, Anne Holland, was a leader. One that played an important role for me and my six older brothers and sisters. It was the community I was born into.” 

Hicks said her family history would play an important role in her responsibility as the USS Baltimore sponsor. 

“As sponsor of the future USS Baltimore, SSN-812, I will continue to carry on our family’s legacy of service and commitment to the submarine force,” she said.

The USS Baltimore, not yet constructed, will be a Block V, Virginia-class, nuclear-powered submarine. So far, more than 20 Virginia-class submarines have been constructed and are now home-ported with the Navy in Hawaii, Connecticut, and Virginia. The new subs replace retiring Los Angeles-class submarines and include several innovations that enhance warfighting capabilities.   

According to a U.S. Navy fact sheet, the Virginia-class submarine has special features to support special operations forces, including a reconfigurable torpedo room that can accommodate a large number of personnel and their equipment. Also, in the Virginia-class, traditional periscopes have been replaced with photonics masts that host visible and infrared digital cameras atop telescoping arms. With this change, the submarine’s control room has been moved and now provides more space and an improved layout. 

“When Baltimore joins the fleet with a world-class crew, it will be among the most agile, lethal, resilient and capable conventional nuclear-powered submarines we’ve ever made,” Hicks said. “The Baltimore belongs to a continuously modernized class of attack submarines that are not only larger, more powerful, and more lethal, [but] they also run quieter, deeper and faster.” 

Hicks described the new Virginia-class subs as a “Swiss Army knife of naval capabilities” and said they support anti-surface and strike missions, anti-submarine warfare and special operations capabilities. She also said they provide more inputs into multi-domain awareness, are interoperable with U.S. ally and partner forces, and are built to be upgraded with future technology and capability. 

The biggest asset of the USS Baltimore and other Virginia-class subs, she said, will be their deterrence capability. 

“Like all of our submarines, conventional and otherwise, we build them not to provoke war, but rather to prevent wars through deterrence,” she said. “Whenever our would-be adversaries consider the risks of aggression, sometimes they will see the ‘big stick’ of U.S. and allied military assets, like the USS Theodore Roosevelt and our other aircraft carriers. They certainly send a signal and have the firepower to back it up.” 

Other times, she said, it’s not necessary to put that kind of capability on display; it’s enough that adversaries know it exists. 

“[The] USS Baltimore — with its stealth, endurance, lethality and speed — will be just such an asset, part of our unseen advantage,” Hicks said. “And the only thing the adversary will hear is the sound of silence.” 

The USS Baltimore will be a Block V submarine equipped with the Virginia payload module. It will be 461 feet long, have a displacement of 10,200 tons, a speed of greater than 25 knots, and carry a crew of 132. With the Virginia payload module, the USS Baltimore will incorporate four additional large-diameter payload tubes, each capable of carrying seven Tomahawk cruise missiles.

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