This ship will continue a tradition of American fighting ships named named New York. It is the 7th fighting ship to carry the name USS New York. It should be noted that 6th ship to have the name New York on the hull was officially named the USS New York City.
Here is a link to the USS San Antonio, a sister ship of the USS New York and the first ship in the class.
The 1st USS New York was a gondola built by Gen. Benedict Arnold’s American troops on Lake Champlain at Skenesborough, N.Y. in the summer of 1776. It was run aground and burned by retreating American troops.
The 2nd USS New York was a 36 gun Frigate launched in 1800. This ship saw action in the Mediterranean during the Barbary Wars off "the shores of Tripoli". It was burned by British troops during the capture of Washington DC in 1814.
The 3rd USS New York had it's name changed to the New York from the Ontario in 1869. Ontario, a screw frigate laid down at the New York Navy Yard in 1863, was never launched. Work on the ship was suspended 27 November 1865, and her name was changed to New York 15 May 1869. The ship was sold while still on the stocks 12 May 1888.
The 4th USS New York, a battle crusier, was launched in 1893 and participated in the attack on Cuba during the Spanish American War, as well as serving during WWI in both the Atlantic and Pacific. This ship, under the name USS Rochester, was scuttled off of the Philipines in December 1941 to prevent Japanese capture of the ship.
The 5th USS New York was a North Africa, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa veteran.....
USS New York (Battleship # 34, later BB-34), 1914-1948
USS New York, lead ship of a two-ship class of 27,000-ton battleships, was built at the New York Navy Yard. Commissioned in April 1914, her first active service was off Vera Cruz, Mexico, during the U.S. intervention there. After more than three years of operations off the east coast and in the Caribbean, in December 1917 New York crossed the Atlantic to join the British Grand Fleet. She was flagship of the U.S. battleships of the Sixth Battle Squadron during the remainder of the First World War.
In mid-1919, New York transited the Panama Canal to the Pacific, where she was based during the next decade and a half. As a unit of the Battle Fleet, she took an active part in the exercises, drills and gunnery practices that were regularly held in the Pacific and Caribbean. New York underwent modernization in 1925-27, receiving new oil-fired boilers, anti-torpedo bulges on her hull sides, heavier deck armor, up-to-date gunfire control mechanisms and many other improvements that enhanced her combat capabilities. After being transferred to the Atlantic in the mid-1930s, she visited England in 1937 as the U.S. representative to the British Coronation naval review. Over the next three years, the battleship was actively employed as a training ship.
With the coming of war to Europe, New York participated in Neutrality Patrol operations, and, as the U.S. drew closer to the conflict in 1941, helped in the occupation of Iceland and in escorting convoys. Her convoy activities continued after the United States became a combatant in December 1941. In November 1942, New York also took part the North African invasion, providing gunfire support for landings at Safi, Morocco. She spent 1943 and most of 1944 on escort and training duties, steaming to the Pacific war zone in early 1945. In February, New York's big guns were active bombarding Iwo Jima before and during the Marines' assault on that island. She was similarly employed off Okinawa from late March until June, and was lightly damaged by a suicide plane on 14 April 1945.
Following the Japanese capitulation in August 1945, New York moved back to the Atlantic and was at New York City for the Navy Day fleet review in late October. Her last active service was as a target during the atomic bomb tests at Bikini, Marshall Islands, in July 1946. Too radioactive for further use, she decommissioned a month later. In July 1948, USS New York was towed out to sea off Pearl Harbor and sunk as a target for Navy aircraft and ships.
The 6th USS New York was a nuclear submarine commisioned in 1979 and retired in 1997.
Sources: www.history.navy.mil, navysite.de/ssn/ssn696.htm