The USS Atlanta (SSN-813) is one of the most capable attack submarines the United States Navy has ever put under contract. Named in October 2024 and currently in the early stages of construction, it will be the 40th Virginia-class submarine overall and the 12th built to the more powerful Block V design. If you've seen the name in the news and wanted a clear, no-jargon breakdown of what this boat is, what it can do, and why it took nearly two years just to finalize the contract, you're in the right place.
What Is the USS Atlanta (SSN-813)?
The USS Atlanta (SSN-813) is a nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine of the Virginia class, currently on order with the U.S. Navy. It's the sixth U.S. Navy vessel to carry the Atlanta name, and the second in a pair of final Block V boats ordered in the Fiscal Year 2024 defense budget alongside the USS Baltimore (SSN-812). Together, those two submarines cost approximately $9.4 billion when Congress initially funded them, though that figure has since grown considerably.
Think of SSN-813 as the most capable iteration of an already elite platform. Block V Virginia-class submarines are longer, heavier, and significantly more heavily armed than their predecessors. SSN-813 will stretch 460 feet, displace 10,200 tons submerged, and carry a crew of roughly 135 officers and enlisted sailors. Its S9G nuclear reactor gives it a top speed of around 25 knots submerged and allows it to stay under for more than three months at a time.
The Virginia-Class: Built for a New Era of Competition
The Virginia class was designed from the start to be flexible. Earlier U.S. submarine classes were optimized for one primary mission. The Los Angeles-class boats, for example, were built during the Cold War primarily to hunt Soviet submarines. The Virginia class was built to handle a much wider range of tasks: anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, intelligence gathering, special operations support, and land strike missions using cruise missiles.
The class has evolved significantly across its production blocks. Block I through Block IV boats are capable submarines, but they carry 12 Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from vertical launch tubes. Block V changed that equation in a major way. Starting with the second Block V boat, the future USS Arizona (SSN-803), every Virginia-class submarine now incorporates the Virginia Payload Module, and SSN-813 will be no exception.
What the Virginia Payload Module Actually Does
The Virginia Payload Module is an 84-foot hull section inserted into the middle of the submarine. It adds four large-diameter vertical launch tubes, each of which can carry seven Tomahawk cruise missiles. Combined with the 12 missiles in the forward payload tubes, a Block V boat like SSN-813 carries a total of 40 Tomahawk missiles. That's more than triple the load of earlier Virginia-class boats.
Why does this matter so much? The U.S. Navy is retiring its Ohio-class guided missile submarines (SSGNs), which were converted ballistic missile boats each capable of carrying 154 Tomahawks. When the last SSGN retires in 2028, the Navy estimates it will lose roughly 60 percent of its undersea strike capacity. The VPM is the primary way the Navy plans to make up for that gap without building entirely new submarine types. Adding the module to 20 planned Block V boats distributes that strike capacity across more submarines, complicates any adversary's targeting math, and does it at a fraction of what new SSGNs would cost.
The VPM also adds flexibility for other payloads. The large-diameter tubes can accommodate unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) and are being designed with hypersonic missile compatibility in mind for future weapons. SSN-813 will be ready to integrate new weapons as they come online, not just the ones available at launch.
The VPM doesn't just give the Atlanta more missiles. It makes the entire submarine force harder to neutralize by spreading that firepower across more hulls.
The Naming Ceremony and What Atlanta Means to the Navy
On October 23, 2024, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro announced the name at a ceremony held at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta. The venue wasn't accidental. President Carter served as a young Navy officer in the nuclear submarine program in 1952, and his legacy is tied directly to the development of nuclear-powered submarines. The third and final Seawolf-class submarine, USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23), was named in his honor and commissioned in 2005.
Del Toro noted that it had been 25 years since the Navy had a warship named for Atlanta. Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms was named as the ship's sponsor, a role that creates a formal bond between the vessel, her crew, and the nation throughout the life of the ship. Congresswoman Nikema Williams, representing Georgia's 5th Congressional District, attended the ceremony and tied the naming to Atlanta's role in the civil rights movement, describing SSN-813 as a vessel that will carry the legacy of leaders like Congressman John Lewis.
The Atlanta Name Has a Long and Significant History
SSN-813 will be the sixth U.S. Navy vessel to carry the name Atlanta. That lineage goes back to 1863, when the Navy captured a Confederate ironclad that had been operating as CSS Atlanta. Since then, the name has appeared on a protected cruiser launched in 1884, two World War II-era cruisers, and most recently the Los Angeles-class submarine USS Atlanta (SSN-712), which was commissioned in 1982 and inactivated in 1999.
The most historically significant of these is the USS Atlanta (CL-51), a light cruiser commissioned just before Christmas 1941, days after Pearl Harbor. She was sponsored by Margaret Mitchell, the author of Gone With the Wind. Atlanta (CL-51) fought at the Battle of Midway, the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, and finally at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942, where she was struck by Japanese torpedoes and then, tragically, by friendly fire from USS San Francisco in a chaotic night engagement. She was scuttled on November 13, 1942, and went down with 5 battle stars and a Presidential Unit Citation to her name.
| Vessel | Type | Years in Service | Notable Service |
|---|---|---|---|
| USS Atlanta (1861) | Captured Confederate ironclad | 1863–1869 | Captured during Civil War |
| USS Atlanta (1884) | Protected cruiser | 1884–1912 | Early steel Navy |
| USS Atlanta (CL-51) | Light cruiser | 1941–1942 | Midway, Guadalcanal; sunk in action |
| USS Atlanta (CL-104) | Light cruiser | 1944–1963 | World War II; later explosives test ship |
| USS Atlanta (SSN-712) | Los Angeles-class submarine | 1982–1999 | First sub certified for Harpoon and Tomahawk simultaneously |
| USS Atlanta (SSN-813) | Virginia-class submarine (Block V) | TBD | nder contract; future fleet service |
In my view, one detail from SSN-712's record that doesn't get enough attention is this: the previous USS Atlanta was the first nuclear submarine certified to simultaneously deploy both Harpoon anti-ship missiles and Tomahawk land-attack missiles. It was also the first nuclear-powered submarine assigned to directly support an Amphibious Ready Group. SSN-813 inherits a name with real operational history behind it, not just a geographical designation.
Construction Status and the Cost Overrun Problem
Here's where things get a little complicated, and it's worth being honest about it. Congress funded the USS Baltimore (SSN-812) and USS Atlanta (SSN-813) together in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget at a combined cost of approximately $9.4 billion. By the time the Navy actually got to finalizing construction contracts, those two boats were nearly $2 billion over that original figure, driven by rising labor costs and supply chain problems that have affected the entire defense shipbuilding sector since the pandemic.
After almost two years of negotiations, the Navy awarded contracts in April 2025 worth up to $18.5 billion to General Dynamics Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls Industries' Newport News Shipbuilding. Electric Boat received the primary contract, valued at over $12.4 billion with all options exercised. Newport News, the co-builder, received $1.3 billion as the primary subcontractor. The expected completion date for the work is June 2036. Part of the contract also included funding specifically for workforce development, raising wages for shipbuilders at both yards as an acknowledgment that skilled labor shortages were a root cause of the delays.
Construction is split between Electric Boat's facilities in Groton, Connecticut and Quonset Point, Rhode Island, and Newport News in Virginia. Modular sections are built at different locations and then barged for final assembly, depending on which yard has the primary responsibility for the boat. SSN-813 is in the early production phase and does not yet have a publicly confirmed keel-laying date.
What USS Atlanta (SSN-813) Will Actually Do in the Fleet
Fast-attack submarines like SSN-813 are the workhorses of U.S. undersea warfare. They're not ballistic missile submarines sitting in quiet patrols waiting for a deterrence scenario to unfold. SSN-813 will be expected to hunt adversary submarines, track surface ships, gather intelligence by operating close to adversary coastlines, support special operations forces when required, and stand ready to conduct land-attack missions with its Tomahawk inventory.
Given the Navy's focus on the Indo-Pacific, Block V submarines like SSN-813 are being built with great-power competition in mind. China's submarine force has grown substantially, and the Pacific theater demands submarines with endurance, stealth, and deep magazine capacity. SSN-813's 40-missile loadout makes it particularly useful in a high-intensity conflict scenario where sustained land-attack capability from a survivable platform is a strategic priority.
A submarine that can carry 40 Tomahawk missiles and disappear under 800 feet of water is a very different problem for an adversary to solve than one carrying 12.
The VPM also positions SSN-813 for the future. As the Navy develops hypersonic strike weapons and larger unmanned underwater vehicles, the four large-diameter tubes in the module provide the physical space to integrate those systems. SSN-813 won't be limited to its launch configuration. It will grow with the threat.
Where Things Stand and What to Watch
The USS Atlanta (SSN-813) is under contract, its construction funding is secured, and its role in the fleet is clear. The realistic commissioning timeline, given where construction stands and typical build timelines for Block V boats, puts SSN-813 likely in the early-to-mid 2030s, with the June 2036 contract completion date as the outer bound. If you're tracking this program, the milestones to watch are the keel-laying ceremony (which will be publicly announced), the pressure hull complete milestone that SSN-802 reached in December 2025, and eventually the christening ceremony where the ship's sponsor formally names the vessel.
If you want to go deeper on the Virginia class or the broader question of how the U.S. Navy plans to sustain its undersea strike capacity after the Ohio-class SSGNs retire, check out our full breakdown of the Virginia Payload Module and what it means for fleet composition. The Atlanta name has always been attached to warships at the edge of what American naval power could do at the time. SSN-813 fits that tradition.
