![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/michelle-obama-christens-uss-illinois.jpg.jpg\")
First lady Michelle Obama christens the USS Illinois with a bottle of sparkling wine on Oct. 10, 2015, at Electric Boat, a division of General Dynamics, shipyard in Groton, Conn. The submarine will officially join the U.S. Navy fleet in a fall 2016 ceremony.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo Credit: Jessica Hill\/AP<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Electric Boat, which has been designing and building submarines since 1900, had until Aug. 31 to transfer ownership of the future USS Illinois to the Navy, per the contract. It’s the ninth submarine in a row to be delivered to the Navy early and on budget, Stevens said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The submarine has a redesigned bow with two large tubes to launch Tomahawk missiles, instead of 12 smaller tubes. The larger tubes were designed so the Navy would have the flexibility to also launch future weapons and unmanned vehicles, Blomstedt said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cmdr. Jess Porter, the submarine’s commanding officer, described the Illinois as a “stealthy weapon” that can influence adversaries in a way that makes the U.S. more secure. The crew of about 130 men will take the submarine to sea for additional testing to prove its capabilities, Porter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Construction began in March 2011. Modules were built in Rhode Island, at Electric Boat’s manufacturing facility, and in Virginia, at Newport News Shipbuilding. The two shipyards build Virginia-class attack submarines under a teaming agreement and alternate the deliveries. The final assembly and testing took place at Electric Boat’s headquarters in Groton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Obama, who has made it a priority to support military families, broke a bottle of champagne across the submarine’s hull to christen it last year. She has been invited to give the order to “bring the ship to life” at the commissioning ceremony in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inside the submarine, there’s a metal plate inscribed with the first lady’s initials, which each sailor will see several times a day. It’s mounted where the crew eats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Navy has ordered 15 more Virginia-class submarines, and 10 of those are under construction. The last of the 15 is scheduled to be delivered in 2023 as the 28th member of the class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An attack submarine that is sponsored by first lady Michelle Obama and will be named for her home state has been delivered to the U.S. Navy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":41061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":79,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["military-benefits","pay-benefits"],"primary_category":"military-benefits"}}},"categories":[79,12,15,62,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2983],"class_list":["post-18937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-benefits","category-news","category-pay-benefits","category-pentagon-congress","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"UPJFCNJDHBE2ZNMRX7KISZRAVQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/pay-benefits\/military-benefits\/2016\/08\/28\/navy-gets-2-7b-attack-submarine-sponsored-by-michelle-obama\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n