USS New Mexico makes splash in home state.

Gotta love local news. New Mexico gets it's second named ship.


And here is the rest of it.

It was not a test, trust me...

CNO ADM Gary Roughead was in New London today touring Electric Boat and hearing all about how our pals at EB are cutting costs to get us under $2B per Virginia class submarine.

He opened the valve on the graving dock to float the New Hampshire, then had a short Q&A, where he opined on the missile shot, saying it wasn't a test of the ballistic missile system:

“It was what we said it was, a failing satellite that had a significant quantity of toxic material on board, and it was in the best interest to remove that hazard,” he said.

He added, “We made the system do something that it wasn't supposed to do. We had to go in and modify the computer program, we had to take three missiles out of our ballistic missile defense inventory and modify those missiles to be able to hit the target, so it really was not a test.”

So, that's the official word. I guess we get to put 2 of those back into the BMD inventory, so that's good.

He had something to say about those faulty welds:

“I am confident that we're on the right path, and that the safety of our submarines and our sailors is not compromised."