HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut's two U.S. senators say Groton has been chosen as the home port for one of the Navy's newest attack submarines.

The Mississippi was christened at the Electric Boat shipyard in December is to be commissioned in June in Pascagoula, Miss.

Sens. Joseph Lieberman and Richard Blumenthal say the Virginia-class submarine will then be assigned to Naval Submarine Base New London, bringing the number of subs based there to 16.

The senators said in a statement Monday that the assignment is a signal that the base and the Virginia-class program remain "indispensable elements of our nation's defense."