One of the deadliest weapons in the world is one that you aren’t meant to see.
Silently cruising beneath the waves, the Virginia-class attack submarines of the U.S. Navy only reveal themselves when they return to port—or when they unleash their arsenal of cruise missiles and torpedoes.
A 2022 wargame run by the Center for Strategic and International Studies shows just how pivotal these nuclear-powered vessels are in the event of war. Simulating a hypothetical Chinese amphibious invasion of Taiwan, the game revealed that U.S. subs—which would have consisted of Virginia- and older Los Angeles-class attack subs—“were able to wreak havoc with the Chinese fleet,” according to a corresponding 2023 report.
In fact, the Virginia-class subs are arguably the most important weapon for extinguishing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Such a conflict would likely feature salvoes of Chinese ballistic missiles to neutralize U.S. airpower by devastating air bases such as Guam. Surface ships would be targeted by an array of weapons, including “carrier-killer” ballistic and hypersonic missiles. While China is improving its anti-submarine warfare capabilities, the Virginia-class subs may be the most survivable of U.S. platforms.
Yet for such an important vessel, Virginia doesn’t have many sisters. There are only 21 Virginia-class subs in service, with another 17 on order. While technical details of submarines are among any navy’s most closely guarded secrets—there’s a reason why the U.S. sub fleet is called the “Silent Service”—what is publicly known points to the immense capabilities of the Virginia class.
The initial Virginia-class subs are 377 feet long, 34 feet wide, and have a displacement of 7,800 tons when submerged. The latest Block V models, at 461 feet long and 10,200 tons, will have a lengthened hull to accommodate the Virginia Payload Module containing additional cruise missile tubes. Powered by a single nuclear reactor, the Virginias can travel underwater at more than 25 knots (28 miles per hour) while remaining hidden in the ocean depths for months at a time.
To see how much submarine technology has progressed since World War II, consider that a U.S. Navy Gato-class sub from 1943 would have weighed just 2,400 tons submerged, and sailed at 9 knots (10 miles) per hour submerged and 21 knots (24 miles per hour) on the surface. And a Gato would have sailed on the surface whenever possible. The diesel-powered subs of the 1940s were slower underwater, and they needed to surface to recharge their batteries while the crew gulped some desperately needed fresh air.
Over the two decades since the namesake of the Virginia-class—the USS Virginia—was launched in 2003, the ships have only grown more lethal. The first models packed a considerable punch, with 12 Vertical Launch System (VLS) tubes for Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles, as well as four torpedo tubes for Mk-48 torpedoes or mines. The Block III version replaced the VLS with two six-missile Virginia Payload Tubes. The Block V boats now under construction will be floating missile batteries: a new Virginia Payload Module inserted amidships will add four big vertical launch tubes armed with seven Tomahawks apiece for a total of 40 tubes. (You can find a cutaway diagram of the Block V here.)
With dozens of subsonic Tomahawk missiles that can hit targets 1,000 miles away (and eventually even more advanced hypersonic missiles) the Virginia class can strike deep into enemy territory while sailing in distant waters. But to focus only on weapons is to miss the qualities that have made submarines so lethal ever since the first U-boats appeared in the First World War. A U.S. Navy Ticonderoga-class cruiser has 122 VLS missile tubes and a Ford-class carrier can launch almost 100 aircraft—but neither can hide under the ocean. It’s the ability of a sub to stay hidden, to detect a target without being detected, and to destroy that target and escape that makes these vessels so formidable. It’s also why the best weapon to destroy an enemy nuclear submarine is with another submarine.
And the Virginia class may be the world’s best at performing that mission.
“They are very quiet and they have very good sensors on them,” Bryan Clark, a former U.S. Navy submarine officer and now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, tells Popular Mechanics. “In terms of going up against Chinese and Russian submarines, the Virginia class is superior because it will detect the enemy before it gets detected.”
Clark served for years on older U.S. attack and ballistic missile subs before he first set foot aboard a Virginia-class boat. It was an eye-opening experience. A Virginia versus a Los Angeles “is like night and day just in terms of digitization and computerization.”
For example, forget those World War II movies where the submarine captain peers through the periscope. On the Virginia class, “the periscope doesn’t go through the hull,” Clark explains. “The periscope is just a camera on a mast that goes up. And then you sit in the control room and watch the video display.”
Even foreign nations want to embrace Virginia. Australia has decided to replace its Collins-class diesel subs with five Virginia-class boats in the 2030s.
The Compromise Sub
Calling a $4 billion submarine “cheap” sounds like an oxymoron. But among other reasons, the U.S. Navy built the Virginia class because its first choice was too expensive. In the early 1980s, the Navy worried that existing Los Angeles-class attack subs—first commissioned in 1976—couldn’t cope with a new generation of Soviet subs like the quiet Akula class. The Navy’s response was the Seawolf class, a group of highly advanced submarines that would have cost $3 billion apiece (around $6 billion today), making them the most expensive U.S. attack submarines. In the end, the Navy built just three Seawolfs.
At the same time, with the end of the Cold War, there seemed to be little need for ultra-expensive attack subs designed to combat a shrinking and decrepit Russian submarine fleet (China had yet to be perceived as a threat at this point). Instead of the blue-water fleet in the North Atlantic, the Navy focused on littoral warfare—conducting minor operations close to shore—in regions such as the Persian Gulf.
As design work began in the early 1990s to replace the Los Angeles class, the Navy needed an attack sub that wasn’t quite as capable as the Seawolf class: less expensive and easier to build. The result was the Virginia class, which incorporated many technologies from the Seawolf, but in a smaller and slower form. Including the Virginia Payload Module, the latest version will cost $4.3 billion per sub, according to the Congressional Research Service.
The Virginia class was “sort of a compromise,” Clark says. “Let’s build a ship that’s kind of capable of doing all the things that submarines might have to do. A little bit of special operations and sending SEALs ashore, a little bit of littoral intelligence gathering, some cruise missile strikes. It was a jack-of-all-trades kind of submarine.”
Hunt or Be Hunted
But visions of fighting second-rate powers such as Iran and North Korea have been replaced by the specter of a new Cold War as the U.S. contemplates war against major powers like Russia and China for the first time in decades. The ultimate question for the Virginia class boils down to this: how does it compare to the Russian and Chinese submarines that it would hunt—and that would be hunting it?
When U.S. naval experts analyzed Chinese perceptions of American submarines in 2008, they found that Chinese experts “respect Virginia-class submarines for their advanced technology and quietness.”
Still, other world powers have their own formidable submarines that the Virginia class must contend with.
The best comparison is between the Virginia class and the Yasen M class, Russia’s most advanced attack submarine. The 13,800-ton Yasen-M “is the crown jewel of the contemporary Russian Navy and perhaps the pinnacle of present-day Russian military technology,” RAND Corp. researcher Edward Geist tells Popular Mechanics.
The Yasen-M is a heavily armed vessel designed to launch standoff attacks with missiles. It’s armed with 32 missile tubes that can fire Zircon hypersonic and Kalibr cruise missiles, as well as 10 torpedo tubes.
“From the perspective of submarine quieting, Virginias and the older Seawolf are the quietest submarines on the planet,” Michael Petersen, director of the Russia Maritime Studies Institute at the U.S. Naval War College, tells Popular Mechanics. “The Yasen-M is likewise one of the world’s quietest submarines, but reportedly still has not achieved the same level of quieting as U.S. submarines. Nevertheless, it is extremely difficult to locate and track.”
Petersen rates the Virginia class as superior in sonar technology and signal processing software. “Quieting isn’t the only thing that matters in submarine warfare,” Petersen explains. “Sensor capability is equally crucial. It isn’t clear to me that Russia has yet been able to match the sensor capabilities on the Virginia class.”
Ironically, the Yasen-M may be Russia’s Seawolf. Geist believes Russia can only afford to build a handful of them.
Virginia’s True Enemy
The most dangerous enemy of the Virginia class may not be Russian hunter-killer submarines or Chinese destroyers, but rather its own maintenance requirements. Whatever the virtues of the Virginia class, they have proven to be a challenge in upkeep. For one thing, parts are wearing out sooner than the designers had anticipated. “This has really driven the availability of the Virginia class down,” Clark says.
Though the Navy is keeping mum about specific items, some of the problems appear to be caused by commercial-off-the-shelf components that were adopted to save money. “Because you didn’t think they would break or wear out so soon, you don’t have a supply chain for them,” Clark notes. “You didn’t buy a big pile of them anticipating frequent failures.”
Compounding the problem is a lack of Navy shipyard capacity that’s depriving submarines and other warships of necessary maintenance. About one-third of the Navy’s 50 attack subs are currently non-operational at any given time due to maintenance delays. Not surprisingly, the Navy’s next-generation attack sub will be designed for easier maintenance.
And with Australia slated to receive five existing U.S. Virginias, plus the Navy considering whether to expand its attack sub fleet to 72 boats, there will be a need for more subs. But the shipyard capacity may not be there. The Navy is aiming to procure two Virginias per year, for a total of 10, between 2025 and 2028. Yet it may take until 2028 before shipyards can produce more than the current equivalent of 1.2 subs per year.
Nonetheless, the Virginia class will remain the backbone of the U.S. attack submarine fleet for decades to come. Continuously upgraded with new weapons and sensors, it will remain a formidable platform that lurks silently under the ocean.
Michael Peck writes about defense and international security issues, as well as military history and wargaming. His work has appeared in Defense News, Foreign Policy Magazine, Politico, National Defense Magazine, The National Interest, Aerospace America and other publications. He holds an MA in Political Science from Rutgers University.
