| Click On Image For Full Size Image | Size | Image Description | Contributed By/ Source |
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 | 94k | Welder Rick Romyns begins work on a VLS (Vertical Launch System)tube for the New Mexico(SSN-779), June 2005. | Photo courtesy of Electric Boat News, June 2005. | |
 | 380k | Quonset Point, RI., 19 Jan. 2006, Electric Boat, Quonset Point employee, shows Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV), the Honorable, Dr. Donald C. Winter a piece of sheet metal he is fabricating for use aboard one of the new U.S. Navy Submarines being built by Electric Boat. SECNAV is in the northeast for a tour to familiarize himself with the construction, operation and maintenance of the U.S. Navy's Submarine Fleet. | U.S. Navy photo # N-2568S-171 by Chief Journalist Craig P. Strawser, courtesy of news.navy.mil. | |
 | 72k | Cmdr. Robert Dain, a native of New Mexico, is set become the first commanding officer of his state's namesake submarine, New Mexico (SSN-779). Dain detached 24 March 2006 as Submarine Squadron Seven's deputy commander for Readiness to begin the Submarine Command Course prior to assuming command of New Mexico's pre-commissioning unit in August. | U.S. Navy photo by JO2 Corwin Colbert, COMSUBPAC Public Affairs, courtesy of csp.navy.mil. | |
 | 62k | At present, New Mexico (SSN-779) is nearing 40% complete. Assembly is taking place inside NGNN’s 10-story Module Outfitting Facility (MOF) with New Mexico's bow pointed towards the James River near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. In the MOF, hull sections are end-loaded with system modules which are powered up and tested before hull sections are welded together. Pictured here is the New Mexico state flag which is dwarfed by the 60-ft length of this cylindrical hull section. The forward direction is on the left side. This is section 7 which houses the forward portion of the engine room and the aft portion of the reactor compartment. New Mexico's reactor will power the submarine for its entire 33-year design service life without refueling. In this photo, section 7 is resting in Bay #3 but it will eventually be moved laterally and take its rightful position in New Mexico. | Photo courtesy of Northrop Grumman Newport News & text courtesy of ussnewmexico.net. | |
 | 413k | Before tapered sections of the hull reach the MOF, they are fabricated in the Ring Assembly Building. Pictured here are two forward hull sections. Section 1A (on the right) is outside the pressure hull and houses the forward ballast tanks and 12 vertical tubes for launching cruise missiles. Section 1B (on the left) will be connected to 1A and contains the forward end of the pressure hull. The area with shiny buffed steel is where the sail will be attached. New Mexico's (SSN-779) sail is also under construction in the Ring Assembly Building. The bow dome, housing a spherical sonar array, will complete the forward end of the submarine. | Photo # DCS05-610-5 by John Whalen, courtesy of nn.northropgrumman.com / Northrop Grumman. Text courtesy of ussnewmexico.net. | |
 | 72k | Construction of the New Mexico (SSN-779) at Newport News. | Photo # DCS07-118-02 by John Whalen, courtesy of nn.northropgrumman.com / Northrop Grumman. | |
 | 30k | Another tapered hull section is the stern. Here section 9B is being raised vertically by the shipyard's giant crane for transport to the MOF. Shown in this photo are the aft ballast tank flood ports, special ports from which countermeasures are launched, dihedral (fin) connection points, temporary steel pads for resting on chocks and the receptacle for the rudder pin. At this time, sections 9A and 9B are welded together as one unit and are in their normal horizontal position at the far end of Bay #4 where machining for the propulsor (ultra-quiet propeller in a special housing) is currently in progress. The upper and lower sections of New Mexico's (SSN-779) rudder have already been installed. | Photo courtesy of Northrop Grumman Newport News & text courtesy of ussnewmexico.net. | |
 | 714k | PDF of New Mexico's (SSN-779) keel laying ceremony at Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding on 12 April 2008. "The keel of a ship is its physical foundation. Yet the real foundation -- the spiritual foundation, if you will -- is laid by the men and women who take the raw material and craft it into a fighting warship," said Mike Petters, corporate vice president and president of Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding. "It's the shipbuilders who breathe life into the ship. With New Mexico -- these shipbuilders are men and women from Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding here at Newport News and General Dynamics Electric Boat -- two companies teamed together to provide the most quality-driven and efficient product to the Navy." | Photo courtesy of Northrop Grumman Newport News & text courtesy of northropgrumman.com. | |
 | 163k | Newport News welder Kim Kerins welds ship sponsor Cindy Giambastiani's initials onto a metal plate during the New Mexico (SSN-779) submarine keel authentication ceremony at Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding in Newport News, Va. | Photo by Rick Thompson, courtesy of Northrop Grumman Newport News. | |
 | 191k | New Mexico's (SSN-779) keel authentication ceremony participants included (from left) ship's sponsor Cindy Giambastiani; corporate vice president and president of Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding Mike Petters; U.S. Rep. Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (D-Va.); Newport News welder Kim Kerins; U.S. Rep Robert Wittman, (R-Va.); and New Mexico's Prospective Commanding Officer, Cmdr. Robert Dain. | Photo by John Whalen, courtesy of Northrop Grumman Newport News. | |
 | 131k | Denise Peoples was among the New Mexico (SSN-779) shipbuilders and crew to sign a banner commemorating "pressure hull complete" on the Virginia-class submarine. | Photo # 189-5659, courtesy of Northrop Grumman Newport News. Photo added 05/23/08. | |
 | 606k | Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding reached an important construction milestone May 18 when it completed the final hull welds of the New Mexico (SSN-779). | Photo # 189-5059, courtesy of Northrop Grumman Newport News. Photo added 05/23/08. | |
There is no DANFS History currently available for New Mexico(SSN-779) at the Haze Gray & Underway Web Site, the main archive for the DANFS Online Project.
Crew Contact And Reunion Information
Not applicable to this ship.
Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
The VIRGINIA Class America's Next Submarine
The Virginia Class—A New Submarine for the 21st Century
SSN-774 Virginia-class NSSN New Attack Submarine Centurion
NSSN VIRGINIA CLASS ATTACK SUBMARINE, USA
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