The Navy has announced that the Commissioning Ceremony for NEW MEXICO has been postponed due to shipyard construction problems with weapons handling systems. This was a joint decision by the Program Office, Northrop Grumman and the Prospective Commanding Officer. Sea trials and delivery had already been postponed. With delivery pushing up against the 21 November commissioning date, and other events on the calendar, including Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, NEW MEXICO’s commissioning will probably move into the January-February 2010 timeframe. A new date will most likely be set in late September. We regret any impacts on travel reservations. The new commissioning date will be posted as soon as it is announced by the Navy. We continue to work towards making this commissioning the best ever!
This is the official announcement:
CDR Prokopius -
I regret to inform you that I have had to delay the Commissioning Ceremony for PCU NEW MEXICO. The risk of not being able to deliver the ship in time for an 11/21 ceremony is too high to proceed as planned. Please pass my apologies to all the Commissioning Committee members and others who were planning to attend the ceremony in November. I hope that they are able to re-arrange their travel and attend the rescheduled ceremony. I will work with you to identify alternate dates to propose to the Secretary of the Navy for approval.
Thanks and R/,
CAPT Michael Jabaley
Program Manager, VIRGINIA Class Submarines (PMS 450)