Groton — After a successful dry run Friday, the North Dakota is set to be commissioned at the Naval Submarine Base today, taking its place as the most modern attack submarine in the world and the newest member of the Navy’s fleet.

About 2,400 people are expected to attend the ceremony, including Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and other representatives from Connecticut and North Dakota. Many hail from the $2.6 billion ship’s namesake state and are members of the USS North Dakota Committee, which was formed to promote and support the building process, the submarine itself and its crew.

About 150 crew members are assigned to the submarine, including Capt. Douglas Gordon, the ship’s commanding officer, Lt. Cmdr. Kristopher Lancaster, executive officer, and Master Chief Timothy Preabt, chief of the boat. All of the crew members are considered “plank­owners,” an unofficial term meaning they are the original sailors of the boat, or members of the commissioning crew.

Once commissioned, the North Dakota will be the 11th member of the Virginia class of attack submarines. But, the crew calls the submarine the North Dakota-class, because of design improvements in the bow and other areas. North Dakota is the first submarine to have a redesigned bow with a new sonar array and two larger payload tubes instead of 12 individual, vertical-launch missile tubes. The submarine will be able to launch Tomahawk cruise missiles, deliver Special Forces and provide surveillance of land and sea.

Leading up to the commissioning, Capt. Gordon said the crew underwent a great deal of training, much of which was housed at the submarine base. Part of that training included attack centers, “where you can go and simulate the environment of what it’s like to go track surface ships or other submarines,” he said. “It’s a great setup that they have over here and it really prepares us well for our mission.”

For Capt. Gordon, all of the crew’s training and preparation has led to today.

“I’ve seen the ship go from pieces inside of a building to us sitting in a classroom half a mile away from the boat doing training, qualifying, getting ready, really, for this big day today,” he said.

In the coming days and weeks, the crew will go to sea for additional training, and then it will eventually undergo builder and construction trials.

Lt. Cmdr. Lancaster, who is in charge of executing the schedule of the ship and training, complimented the crew on their work thus far.

“They’ve really done a good job. They’re really excited about this,” he said.

In fact, the crew members are the ones who convinced Lt. Cmdr. Lancaster to join this line of work.

“I joined submarines because of the tight crew, the camaraderie that we have … . The guys really are what makes a difference or what makes this line of work worth it,” he said.

Only one crew member on the submarine, Master Chief Preabt, is a North Dakota native. He was considering retiring before he threw his hat in the ring for the position of chief of the boat. Serving on a boat named after his home state is a point of pride for Preabt and his wife, who is also from North Dakota.

“We’ve had great support from the state, and it’s been a great honor to be one of the only people (from North Dakota) on board,” he said. “We’re hoping to get some more people (from the state) on board, but we’ll work on that.”

The Navy postponed North Dakota’s commissioning, originally set for the end of May, due to issues related to vendor components and additional design and certification work required on the submarine’s redesigned bow. An investigation into the vendor began in April and is ongoing. The name of the vendor is not being released at this time.

Electric Boat led the redesign of the submarine and, despite the redesign issues, delivered North Dakota to the Navy on time and under cost by more than $30 million.

Construction of North Dakota began in March 2009, and the submarine was christened during a ceremony in November 2013.

The commissioning ceremony, which begins at 11 a.m., is expected to last one hour, and is by invitation only. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert will be the keynote speaker. Members of the public wishing to watch the commissioning live can do so online at www.navy.mil.

j.bergman@theday.com

Twitter: JuliaSBergman