Atlanta is far from the ocean, but it will have a naval vessel named for it again. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro announced this week that the Navy will build a Virginia-class attack submarine that will be known as the Atlanta. In August, the Navy awarded a $1.3 billion contract to the General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, Connecticut, to start buying materials for that and other submarines it will eventually build. The Navy has recently been naming new submarines in its Virginia class for cities, including Baltimore, San Francisco, and Miami. It would be the fifth Navy vessel named for Georgia’s largest city. The first was a Confederate ironclad captured in 1863 and converted to Union service during the Civil War. The most recent was a Los Angeles-class nuclear attack submarine that served from 1982 to 1999.
“It has been 25 years since the Navy has had a ship named after the proud legacy of the city of Atlanta,” Del Toro said in a speech at the Carter Center in Atlanta. Del Toro saluted the naval submarine service of former President Jimmy Carter, who just turned 100. Carter, the only president who was a nuclear submariner, already has the Jimmy Carter, a Seawolf-class submarine, named for him. It was commissioned in 2005 and remains in the fleet. Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who has served in President Joe Biden’s administration, will be the ship’s sponsor. “And wherever she sails, she will represent not only the legacy of the proud ships who bore the name USS Atlanta before her, but also the thousands of Atlantans who have honorably and faithfully served the United States in uniform, as civil servants, and as activists to better our great nation,” Del Toro said.
