• General Dynamics Electric Boat receives $1.2 billion to begin construction of the 14th Virginia-class submarine, SSN-787, part of Block III with a revised bow design.
  

• Russia lays out its vision of European missile defense.
  

• Saab sees potential Gripen jet fighter orders in Brazil, Romania, Croatia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.
  

• Pentagon looks to place military payloads on commercial satellites in order to reduce costs.
  

• Wyle gets $14 million contract to provide IT services to support DARPA’s relocation in Arlington, VA.
  

• Atlas Air to begin providing passenger service for US military personnel in May, completing its existing military cargo service.
  

 

 

 

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• General Dynamics Electric Boat receives $1.2 billion to begin construction of the 14th Virginia-class submarine, SSN-787, part of Block III with a revised bow design.
  

 

Anyone else smell opportunity for ballistic missiles on the Virginias, especially if SSBN-X falls through? Granted the missile would have to be shorter but that's better than no SLBM at all right?

Anyone else smell opportunity for ballistic missiles on the Virginias, especially if SSBN-X falls through? Granted the missile would have to be shorter but that's better than no SLBM at all right?

 

Yep, someone else does.

 

From Joint Forces Quarterly, Issue 60, First Quarter 2011, an article entitled Long-range conventional strike: a joint family of systems, by Robert P. Haffa Jr and Michael W. Isherwood.

 

A suggestion to expand the capacity of the Virginia via ...

 

[excerpt]

 

Adding capability to the new Virginia class SSN will make it even more effective as that environment becomes increasingly dangerous. Current plans for the Block 3 (and later) Virginia-class submarines are to replace the 12 VLS now hosting the Tomahawk cruise missile with 2 Virginia payload tubes (VPT) that can launch 6 missiles from a Multiple All Up Round Canister in each tube. The additional volume provided by the VPT allows the Virginia-class SSN to accommodate a larger ballistic missile, adding greater range while cutting the time to target and, simultaneously, improving platform connectivity. The first of these boats, the North Dakota, with an improved bow and launcher technologies borrowed from the Ohio-class guided missile submarines, is scheduled for delivery in 2014. Such a capability would counter antiaccess

threats by being able to hold at risk a range of fixed targets at long ranges from a stealthy stance.