The US Navy has formally redesignated 19 planned Virginia-class fast attack submarines as guided missile submarines, reflecting a major jump in the amount of firepower these boats will carry.
The new designation applies to upcoming Block V and Block VI submarines fitted with the Virginia Payload Module, an 84-foot hull extension that adds four large vertical launch tubes. That module lets each submarine carry 28 extra Tomahawk cruise missiles or hypersonic weapons, pushing total missile capacity to 40 per boat, up sharply from the standard Virginia-class load-out.
The redesignation comes as the Navy retires its four ageing Ohio-class guided-missile submarines, led by USS Georgia, which served for more than four decades. Officials say the new Virginia-class guided-missile boats are meant to close the resulting capability gap while supporting distributed maritime operations in contested theatres. The first VPM-equipped submarine, the future USS Arizona, is due for delivery in 2029, with the rest of the class arriving through 2038.
Vice Admiral Rob Gaucher, the Navy’s director of submarine programs, said the change gives the fleet “an incredibly versatile, hard-hitting instrument of national power.”
The shift underscores how much the US submarine force has come to rely on payload volume rather than platform numbers to project power. As the American attack-submarine fleet has shrunk from its Cold War peak, planners have leaned on boats that can carry large magazines of land-attack and hypersonic weapons to make up for having fewer hulls overall. Pairing conventional strike capacity with the stealth of a nuclear-powered submarine also gives commanders a weapon that can loiter undetected near a contested coastline for weeks, a capability that has grown more valuable as China and Russia invest heavily in long-range sensors designed to track surface ships.