Navy Prototypes New Attack Sub Missile Power

By Kris Osborn

Designed to massively increase missile firepower, bring the platform well into future decades and increase the range of payloads launched or fired from the attack boats.

The new missile tubes, called the Virginia Payload Modules, will rev up the submarines’ Tomahawk missile firing ability from 12 to 40 by adding an additional 28 payload tubes – more than tripling the offensive strike capability of the platforms.

Prototyping of the new submarines amounts to early construction, meaning the missile tubes now being engineered and assembled with be those which will ultimately integrate into the completed boat. In essence, construction and metal bending for elements of what will become the first VPM are underway.

“Virginia Payload Module prototyping efforts are underway, with the first set of payload tubes under construction. Design products are on track to support FY19 construction. Cost and schedule performance remain within parameters established at the outset of the program,” Naval Sea Systems Command spokesman William Couch told Scout Warrior. 

Increasing undersea strike capability is a key element of the strategic calculus for the Navy as it continues to navigate its way into an increasingly high-tech and threatening global environment; potential adversaries are not only rapidly developing new quieting weapons and sonar detection technologies but also fielding long-range, precision-guided anti-ship missiles designed to target surface ships at long ranges.

The Chinese DF-21D and subsequent follow-on weapons in development are engineered to destroy carriers, destroyers and other surface vessels from distances as far as 900-miles off shore; if there is not a suitable defense for these kinds of long-range “anti-access/area-denial” weapons, the Navy’s ability to project power and launch attacks could be significantly limited.

Carriers, for example, could be forced to operate further from the coastline at ranges which greatly complicate the aerial reach of many fighter aircraft which would launch from a carrier air-wing. If carriers are forced by the threat environment to operate at ranges further than fighter aircraft can travel, then new potentially dangerous aerial refueling options become much more complicated and challenging. This being said, Navy leaders have emphasized that its aircraft carriers will not be stopped or intimated away from operating where they need to operate. Additional high-tech defenses such as electronic warfare, possible laser technologies and emerging weapons are expected to vastly improve carrier defenses in future years. Furthermore, aerial drone technology such as the emerging MQ-25 Stingray refueler is likely to massively expand the strike range of carrier-launched fighter jets while minimizing risk to pilots.