Second Trident Submarine Launched At Electric Boat

The chairman of the Installation and Facilities Subcommittee of the House A r m e d S e r v i c es Committee termed the development and deployment of the Trident ballistic missile submarine "the heart of our nuclear strategy." Speaking at recent christening ceremonies for the USS Michigan (SSBN-727), the second ship of the Trident class, at General Dynamics' Electric Boat Division in Groton, Conn., Congressman Lucien N. Nedzi (D-Mich.) called the project "simply indispensable." Congressman Nedzi said the submarine, "because of its firepower and range . . . will have more 'sea room' than our older submarines and be less detectable, less vulnerable, less dependent on foreign bases." The Congressman said he hoped that when the Michigan is retired "on some distant day" it will have helped preserve the peace "ever vigilantly, yet never having fired its awesome nuclear punch in anger." In saluting "the men and women who conceived and managed this project," Congressman Nedzi said that it was "no routine assignment.

You are, rather, asked to be pioneers in concept and in craftsmanship, taking your skills to the outer edges of knowledge and execution." Later in the ceremonies, Congressman Nedzi's wife, Margaret Garvey Nedzi, c h r i s t e n e d the Michigan, smashing the traditional bottle of champagne on the superstructure of the 560-foot, 18,750-ton ship.

Also participating in the ceremonies were Robert J. Murray, Under Secretary of the Navy; David S. Lewis, General Dynamics' board chairman ; and P. Takis Veliotis, General Dynamics' vice p r e s i d e n t - m a r i n e and general manager of the Electric Boat Division.

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