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SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (CNN) — The Navy unveiled the name of its newest Virginia-Class submarine Tuesday — the USS Utah.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus made the announcement during a ship-naming ceremony in Salt Lake City.
Along with the ability to attack onshore targets with Tomahawk cruise missile, Virginia-class attack submarines conduct long-term surveillance of land areas and are used in anti-submarine and anti-ship warfare along with minefield mapping capabilities.
Utah was home to the Naval Supply Depot Clearfield, which became the largest naval supply facility by the end of World War II, the Pentagon said in a news release.
This is the second vessel in Navy history to bear that name. The USS Utah was a battleship commissioned in 1911 that transported Mexican refugees during the Mexican civil war, sailed during World War I and was ultimately struck by a torpedo and capsized during the initial stages of the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Virginia-class submarines weigh in at 7,800 tons and have a length of 377 feet.
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