Navy Launches New Sub Ahead of Schedule. Really.

Navy acquisitions are looking up. They're launching a new submarine ahead of schedule, and with an interesting 9-11 tie-in, too:

The Navy’s newest attack submarine New Hampshire (SSN 778) will be commissioned Saturday, Oct. 25, 2008, during a 10 a.m. EDT ceremony at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine.
Sen. Judd Gregg will deliver the ceremony’s principal address. The ship’s sponsor, Cheryl McGuinness of Portsmouth, N.H., is the widow of Lt. Cmdr. Thomas McGuinness, a veteran Navy pilot and co-pilot of American Airlines Flight 11 which was flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001. The ceremony will be highlighted by a time-honored Navy tradition when McGuinness gives the order to “man our ship and bring her to life!”
The fifth submarine of the Virginia-class, New Hampshire was delivered eight months early thanks to the Navy’s on-going cost-reduction initiatives. This will mark the first time since 1996 that the Navy has commissioned two submarines of the same class in the same year -- USS North Carolina was commissioned in May.

By: Brant