The US Navy’s third new Virginia Class submarine USS North Carolina will be home-ported at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in summer 2010.
USS North Carolina will undergo a wide range of missions including anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface ship warfare, strike, naval special warfare involving special operations forces, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, irregular warfare and mine warfare.
The state-of-the-art North Carolina was commissioned in May 2008 and now will join USS Hawaii and USS Texas at Submarine Squadron One.
The 377ft-long submarine has a submerged displacement of 7,800t and can accommodate a crew of more than 130.
Every two of three Virginia Class submarines being built on the east coast will be initially based at Pearl Harbor and the remainder will be based at Groton, Connecticut, according to the navy.
The US Navy says it will build 30 of the submarines, worth approximately $2.7bn each.
