Virginia-class Submarine

The ''Virginia'' class, also known as the SSN-774 class, is a class of nuclear-powered cruise missile fast-attack submarines, in service in the United States Navy. Designed by General Dynamics Electric Boat (EB) and Huntington Ingalls Industries, the ''Virginia'' class is the United States Navy's latest submarine model, which incorporates the latest in stealth, intelligence gathering, and weapons systems technology.

''Virginia''-class submarines are designed for a broad spectrum of open-ocean and littoral missions, including anti-submarine warfare and intelligence gathering operations. They are scheduled to replace older s, many of which have already been decommissioned. ''Virginia''-class submarines will be acquired through 2043, and are expected to remain in service until at least 2060, with later submarines expected to remain into the 2070s.

History

The class was developed under the codename Centurion, later renamed New SSN (NSSN). The "Centurion Study" was initiated in February 1991. The ''Virginia''-class submarine was the first US Navy warship with its development coordinated using such 3D visualization technology as CATIA, which comprises computer-aided engineering (CAE), design (CAD), manufacturing (CAM), and product lifecycle management (PLM). Design problems for Electric Boat – and maintenance problems for the Navy – ensued nonetheless.

By 2007 approximately 35 million labor hours had been spent to design the ''Virginia'' class. Constructing a single ''Virginia''-class submarine has required around nine million labor hours, and over 4,000 suppliers. Each submarine is projected to make 14–15 deployments during its 33-year service life.

The ''Virginia'' class was intended in part as a less expensive alternative to the ($1.8 billion vs $2.8 billion), whose production run was canceled after just three boats had been completed. To reduce costs, the ''Virginia''-class submarines use many "commercial off-the-shelf" (COTS) components, especially in their computers and data networks. Improvements in shipbuilding technology have trimmed production costs below the $1.8 billion projected fiscal year 2009 dollars.

In hearings before both House of Representatives and Senate committees, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and expert witnesses testified that the annual procurement rate of only one ''Virginia''-class boat – rising to two in 2012 – would result in excessive unit production costs, yet an insufficient complement of attack submarines. In a 10 March 2005 statement to the House Armed Services Committee, Ronald O'Rourke of the CRS testified that, assuming that the production rate remains as planned, "production economies of scale for submarines would continue to remain limited or poor."

In 2001, Newport News Shipbuilding and the General Dynamics Electric Boat Company built a quarter-scale version of a ''Virginia''-class submarine dubbed Large Scale Vehicle II (LSV II) ''Cutthroat''. The vehicle was designed as an affordable test platform for new technologies.

The ''Virginia'' class is built through an industrial arrangement designed to maintain both GD Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding, the only two U.S. shipyards capable of building nuclear-powered submarines. Under the present arrangement, the Newport News facility builds the stern, habitability, machinery spaces, torpedo room, sail, and bow, while Electric Boat builds the engine room and control room. The facilities alternate work on the reactor plant as well as the final assembly, test, outfit, and delivery.

O'Rourke wrote in 2004 that, "Compared to a one-yard strategy, approaches involving two yards may be more expensive but offer potential offsetting benefits." Among the claims of "offsetting benefits" that O'Rourke attributes to supporters of a two-facility construction arrangement is that it "would permit the United States to continue building submarines at one yard even if the other yard is rendered incapable of building submarines permanently or for a sustained period of time by a catastrophic event of some kind", including an enemy attack.

In order to get the submarine's price down to $2 billion per submarine in FY-05 dollars, the Navy instituted a cost-reduction program to shave off approximately $400 million of each submarine's price tag. The project was dubbed "2 for 4 in 12," referring to the Navy's desire to buy two boats for $4 billion in FY-12. Under pressure from Congress, the Navy opted to start buying two boats per year in FY-11, meaning that officials would not be able to get the $2 billion price tag before the service started buying two submarines per year. However, program manager Dave Johnson said at a conference on 19 March 2008 that the program was only $30 million away from achieving the $2 billion price goal, and would reach that target on schedule.

The ''Virginia''-class Program Office received the David Packard Excellence in Acquisition Award in 1996, 1998, 2008, "for excelling in four specific award criteria: reducing life-cycle costs; making the acquisition system more efficient, responsive, and timely; integrating defense with the commercial base and practices; and promoting continuous improvement of the acquisition process".

In December 2008, the Navy signed a $14 billion contract with General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman to supply eight submarines. The contract required the delivery of one submarine in each of fiscal 2009 and 2010, and two submarines on each of fiscal 2011, 2012, and 2013. This contract was designed to bring the Navy's ''Virginia''-class fleet to 18 submarines. In December 2010, the United States Congress passed a defense authorization bill that expanded production to two subs per year. Two submarine-per-year production resumed on 2 September 2011 with commencement of construction.

On 21 June 2008, the Navy christened , the first Block II submarine. This boat was delivered eight months ahead of schedule and $54 million under budget. Block II boats are built in four sections, compared to the ten sections of the Block I boats. This enables a cost saving of about $300 million per boat, reducing the overall cost to $2 billion per boat and the construction of two new boats per year. Beginning in 2010, new submarines of this class were to have included a software system that can monitor and reduce their electromagnetic signatures when needed.

The first full-duration six-month deployment was successfully carried out from 15 October 2009 to 13 April 2010. Authorization of full-rate production and the declaration of full operational capability was achieved five months later. In September 2010, it was found that urethane tiles, applied to the hull to damp internal sound and absorb rather than reflect sonar pulses, were falling off while the subs were at sea. Admiral Kevin McCoy announced that the problems with the Mold-in-Place Special Hull Treatment for the early subs had been fixed in 2011, then ''Minnesota'' was built and found to have the same problem.

In 2013, just as two-per-year sub construction was supposed to commence, Congress failed to resolve the United States fiscal cliff, forcing the Navy to attempt to "de-obligate" construction funds.

In April 2019, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) reported that the Navy estimated the cost of a boat was $2.8 billion. In September 2021, the CRS reported that the Navy estimates at the present production rate of two boats per a year that the cost per a boat when equipped with the additional Virginia Payload Module (VPM) mid-body section was $3.45 billion.

Innovations

The ''Virginia'' class incorporates several innovations not found in previous US submarine classes.

Technology barriers

Because of the low rate of ''Virginia'' production, the Navy entered into a program with DARPA to overcome technology barriers to lower the cost of attack submarines so that more could be built, to maintain the size of the fleet.

These include:
* Propulsion concepts not constrained by a centerline shaft.
* Externally stowed and launched weapons (especially torpedoes).
* Conformal alternatives to the existing spherical sonar array.
* Technologies that eliminate or substantially simplify existing submarine hull, mechanical, and electrical systems.
* Automation to reduce crew workload for standard tasks

Unified Modular Masts

''Virginia''-class subs are the first class where all masts share common design - the Universal Modular Mast (UMM) - designed by L3 KEO (previously Kollmorgen). Shared components have been maximized and some design choices are also shared between different masts. The first UMM was installed on , a ''Los Angeles''-class submarine. The UMM is an integrated system for housing, erecting, and supporting submarine mast-mounted antennas and sensors. The UMMs are the following:
* Snorkel mast
* Two photonic masts
* Two communication masts
* One or two high-data-rate satellite communication (SATCOM) masts, built by Raytheon, enabling communication at Super High Frequency (for downlink) and Extremely High Frequency (for uplink) range
* Radar mast (carrying AN/BPS-16 surface search and navigation radar)
* Electronic warfare mast (AN/BLQ-10 Electronic Support Measures) used to detect, analyze, and identify both radar and communication signals from ships, aircraft, submarines, and land-based transmitters

Photonics masts

The ''Virginia'' class is the first to utilize photonic sensors instead of a traditional periscope. The class is equipped with high-resolution cameras, along with light-intensification and infrared sensors, an infrared laser rangefinder, and an integrated Electronic Support Measures (ESM) array. Two redundant sets of these sensors are mounted on two AN/BVS-1 photonics masts located outside the pressure hull. Signals from the masts' sensors are transmitted through optical fiber data lines through signal processors to the control center. Visual feeds from the masts are displayed on liquid-crystal display interfaces in the command center.

The design of earlier optical periscopes required them to penetrate the pressure hull, reducing the structural integrity of the pressure hull as well as increasing the risk of flooding, and also required the submarine's control room to be located directly below the sail/fin. Implementation of photonics masts (which do not penetrate the pressure hull) enabled the submarine control room to be relocated to a position inside the pressure hull which is not necessarily directly below the sail.

The current photonics masts have a visual appearance so different from ordinary periscopes that when the submarine is detected, it can be distinctly identified as a ''Virginia''-class vessel. As a result, current photonic masts will be replaced with Low-Profile Photonics Masts (LPPM) which resemble traditional submarine periscopes more closely.

In the future, a non-rotational Affordable Modular Panoramic Photonics Mast may be fitted, enabling the submarine to obtain a simultaneous 360° view of the sea surface.

Propulsor

In contrast to a traditional bladed propeller, the ''Virginia'' class uses pump-jet propulsors by BAE Systems, originally developed for the Royal Navy's s. The propulsor significantly reduces the risks of cavitation, and allows quieter operation.

Improved sonar systems

Sonar arrays aboard ''Virginia''-class submarines have an "Open System Architecture" (OSA) which enables rapid insertion of new hardware and software as they become available. Hardware upgrades (dubbed Technology Insertions) are usually carried out every four years, while software updates (dubbed Advanced Processor Builds) are carried out every two years. ''Virginia''-class submarines feature several types of sonar arrays.
* BQQ-10 bow-mounted spherical active/passive sonar array (Large Aperture Bow (LAB) sonar array from SSN-784 onward)
* A wide aperture lightweight fiber optic sonar array, consisting of three flat panels mounted low along either side of the hull
* Two high frequency active sonars mounted in the sail and bow. The chin-mounted (below the bow) and sail-mounted high frequency sonars supplement the (spherical/LAB) main sonar array, enabling safer operations in coastal waters, enhancing under-ice navigation, and improving anti-submarine warfare performance.
* Low-Cost Conformal Array (LCCA) high frequency sonar, mounted on both sides of the submarine's sail. Provides coverage above and behind the submarine.

''Virginia''-class submarines are also equipped with a low frequency towed sonar array and a high frequency towed sonar array.
* TB-16 or TB-34 fat line tactical towed sonar array
* TB-29 or TB-33 thin line long-range search towed sonar array

Rescue equipment

* Submarine Escape Immersion Equipment MK11 suit(s) – enable ascent from a sunken submarine (maximum ascent depth )
* Lithium hydroxide canisters that remove carbon dioxide from the submarine's atmosphere
* Submarine Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (SEPIRB)

Virginia Payload Module

The Block III submarines have two multipurpose Virginia Payload Tubes (VPT) replacing the dozen single purpose cruise missile launch tubes.

The Block V submarines built from 2019 onward will have an additional Virginia Payload Module (VPM) mid-body section, increasing their overall length. The VPM will add four more VPTs of the same diameter and greater height, located on the centerline, carrying up to seven Tomahawk missiles apiece, that would replace some of the capabilities lost when the SSGN conversion s are retired from the fleet. Initially eight payload tubes/silos were planned but this was later rejected in favor of four tubes installed in a long module between the operations compartment and the propulsion spaces.

The VPM could potentially carry (non-nuclear) medium-range ballistic missiles. Adding the VPM would increase the cost of each submarine by $500 million (2012 prices). This additional cost would be offset by reducing the total submarine force by four boats. More recent reports state that as a cost reduction measure the VPM would carry only Tomahawk SLCM and possibly unmanned undersea vehicles (UUV) with the new price tag now estimated at $360–380 million per boat (in 2010 prices). The VPM launch tubes/silos will reportedly be similar in design to the ones planned for the ''Ohio''-class replacement. In July 2016 General Dynamics was awarded $19 million for VPM development. In February 2017 General Dynamics was awarded $126 million for long lead time construction of Block V submarines equipped with VPM.

The VPM was designed by BWX Technologies (the same company also designs the missile tubes for the ), however, manufacture is undertaken by BAE Systems.

High-energy laser weapon

According to open-source budget documents, ''Virginia''-class submarines are planned to be equipped with a high-energy laser weapon likely to be incorporated into the photonics mast and have a power output of 300–500 kilowatts, based on the submarine's 210 megawatts reactor capacity.

Other improved equipment

* Optical fiber fly-by-wire ''Ship Control System'' replaces electro-hydraulic systems for control surface actuation.
* Command and control system module (CCSM) built by Lockheed Martin.
* The auxiliary generator is powered by a Caterpillar model 3512B V-12 marine diesel engine. This replaced the Fairbanks-Morse diesel engine, which would not fit in ''Virginia''s auxiliary machinery room.
* Modernized version of the AN/BSY-1 integrated combat system designated AN/BYG-1 (previously designated CCS Mk2) and built by General Dynamics AIS (previously Raytheon). AN/BYG-1 integrates the submarine Tactical Control System (TCS) and Weapon Control System (WCS).
* USS ''California'' was the first ''Virginia''-class submarine with the advanced electromagnetic signature reduction system built into it, but this system is being retrofitted into the other submarines of the class.
* Integral 9-man lock-out diving chamber.

Specifications

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