US - Navy Sub Mississippi To Be Assigned To New London Base

One of the U.S. Navy's newest submarines will be assigned temporarily to the state's Naval Submarine Base New London, a move hailed Monday by elected officials as a reflection of the base's importance.

The USS Mississippi will be making the same first stop as other Virginia-class submarines, but local officials and the state's congressional delegation are eager to find signs of strength as they gird for the possibility that the base, in Groton, an hour's drive southeast of Hartford, will be targeted by theU.S. Department of Defense for closure.

Connecticut's two U.S. senators said the Navy confirmed the submarine will be going to the base in Groton, in the southeastern part of the state, taking the number of subs based there to 16.

"We are encouraged by this signal that both the base and the Virginia-class program remain indispensable elements of our nation's defense," Sens. Joseph Lieberman, an independent and former Democrat, and Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, said in a joint statement.

Since the administration of President Barack Obama raised the specter of base closings in January, the state has been touting investments it has made to increase the value of the sub base. In recent years, Connecticut has committed $50 million for improvements including new dry-dock facilities at Groton-based contractor Electric Boat, as Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy reminded Navy Secretary Ray Mabus in a meeting last week at the Pentagon.

In a statement to The Associated Press, Mabus said the Navy is grateful for the state's investments. But he did not directly address how the sub base might fare in a review by a new Base Closure and Realignment Commission, called BRAC.

"BRAC is an important process, and we will support it if passed, although the Navy is already very lean, having drawn down over the past decade," Mabus said. "The submarine base at Groton is important to our overall readiness and accomplishment of critical missions."

At the request of lawmakers in southeastern Connecticut, the state legislature's Appropriations Committee last week approved a budget that includes $300,000 to help fend off another BRAC process. The money would be allocated to the state's Office of Military Affairs, which was created after the base was nearly closed in 2005 and has an annual budget of about $156,000.

The office's director, Robert Ross, said it appears unlikely a new round of base closings would happen in 2013 but the state needs to be ready for that possibility in 2014 or 2015.

The Mississippi, which was christened at the Electric Boat Corp. shipyard in December, is to be commissioned in June in Pascagoula, Miss. The 7,800-ton submarine, which will carry a crew of 132 officers and sailors, is the ninth in the Virginia class of submarines, which carry torpedoes and Tomahawk missiles and have features including a torpedo room that can be reconfigured to hold Navy SEALs.

Ross said the submarine will spend a year or more at the Groton base while it conducts sea trials and the Navy will later announce a permanent home port.

Connecticut officials say the submarine base pumps $4.5 billion a year into the state economy and supports at least 15,000 jobs around the southeastern section of the state.