Calling Virginia-Class Submarines SSGNs Will Not Save the Navy

America cannot redesignate its way out of a submarine shortage.

BLUF: By redesignating 19 future Virginia Payload Module-equipped Virginia-class attack submarines as guided-missile submarines (SSGNs), the Navy is merely masking the very serious crisis it will face between 2027 and 2038, when its maritime-based long-range conventional strike capabilities are effectively erased until these VPM-equipped Virginia-class subs come online. Here’s the real kicker, though: even if the Navy gets all 19 new SSGNs by 2038, they will still lack the firepower that the four Ohio-class SSGNs brought to any fight.

The United States Navy has decided that 19 future Block V and Block VI Virginia-class attack submarines equipped with the Virginia Payload Module (VPM) will no longer be designated as “attack submarines.”

Instead, they will be classified as “guided-missile submarines” (SSGNs).

The Navy is completely misrepresenting the situation by reclassifying these Virginia-class submarines as “guided-missile submarines” (SSGNs).

That’s important because the Navy now finds itself in a major strategic hole now that it is retiring its four Ohio-class SSGNs. These four submarines, which began their existences as ballistic missile submarines designed to fight a nuclear war with the Soviet Union, carry as many as 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles.

The four submarines (USS Ohio, USS Michigan, USS Florida, and USS Georgia) therefore represented as many as 616 submerged Tomahawk launch positions. They could also support more than 60 special operations personnel and accommodate other payloads.

Make no mistake, the VPM-equipped Virginia-class submarine will be a powerful platform. But that platform will still lack the firepower and impact of the Ohio-class SSGNs.

The VPM inserts four large-diameter tubes into the submarine, each capable of holding seven Tomahawks. Those 28 weapons supplement the 12 Tomahawks carried in the submarine’s forward payload tubes, producing a maximum vertical-launch capacity of 40 Tomahawks.

This comparison underscores that one Ohio SSGN carries nearly four times the Tomahawk load of a VPM-equipped Virginia-class, exposing the false equivalence implied by the redesignation.

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