Built in 1916 and already commissioned in World War I, the Pennsylvania-class battleship USS Arizona was catastrophically sunk during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in the middle of World War II. 1,177 people died and the ship was never recovered from the bottom of the sea, which is why today it serves as a memorial to those who lost their lives.
85 years later, the US Navy is building its successor (at least in name): a technologically advanced submarine loaded with cruise missiles.
The new USS Arizona is in the oven. The new USS Arizona (SSN-803 SSGN-803) is a Virginia Block V class nuclear submarine and will have respect The first submarine to include a true weapons prodigy for a military ship: the Virginia Payload Module (VPM), a supercompartment that allows it to carry 28 more cruise missiles.
Still under construction, the submarine’s first section, 56 meters long, has been moved from Quonset Point, Rhode Island, to Groton, Connecticut, where it will be assembled. Including its assembly and VPM, the submarine will have a total length of 140.5 meters and a submerged displacement of 10,364 tons, according to General Dynamics Electric Boat, the largest and oldest submarine construction company in the United States and in charge of the project.
Awesome module. As the US Navy details in its specifications, the VPM is a new piece that is inserted into the central part of the hull and incorporates four large diameter tubes, each containing seven tomahawks. Taking into account that the latest Virginias already carry two 87-inch tubes with six missiles each, one thing and the other the new USS Arizona will be able to carry 40 missiles (12 + 28).
Be careful because the tubes aren’t just used for missiles: they can also integrate unmanned underwater vehicles and other loads. According to GDEB, the attack power per ship increases by up to 230% with an additional cost of less than 15%.
Navy changed course. On August 3, the US Navy announced that 19 Virginia-class submarines equipped with VPM modules were being reclassified from attack submarines (SSN) to guided missile submarines (SSGN). The first to arrive will be the now SSGN 803 Arizona proper, which will be delivered in 2029. The rest will take up to 2038
The reclassification movement is better understood after learning that the US has begun retiring four of its submarines with the most firepower, the Ohio class. The Ohio SSGNs, each capable of carrying 154 missiles, were ballistic nuclear submarines that were converted to conventional weapons following an arms reduction agreement with Russia in the early 2000s. The integration of this VPM module is specifically designed to compensate for this loss, as explained in the magazine of the US National Defense Industrial Association.
Military submarines are difficult to build (For US, it’s a walk for China). To replace them, the Virginias have increased capacity, but as Hudson Institute analyst and former military officer Brian Clark calculates, four Virginias with modules are needed to equal a single Ohio. According to the analyst, they will carry out operations similar to those of the Ohio-class SSGNs: patrol and support missions for special operations. Will it be enough? It has to be: the arms acquisition process is slow and inefficient and there is a lack of qualified personnel to undertake more capable designs.
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