Virginia Block III

The USS North Dakota (SSN 784) scheduled for commissioning on 25 October 2014 in Groton is the first ship featuring a re-designed bow section to allow larger, more versatile weapons tubes under the Block III program. The USS North Dakota is the 11th ship of the Virginia class and the first Block III boat. The Virginia Block III submarines embody an industry commitment to reduce costs without decreasing capabilities through an initiative comprising a multi-year procurement strategy, improvements in construction practices and the Design For Affordability (DFA) program. The US Navy's plans call for the commissioning eight ships between 2014 and 2019. The DFA program focuses primarily on the redesign of the submarine's bow, lowering program costs by $800 million, increasing capability and providing the capacity for additional growth at no additional cost. This redesign replaces a sonar sphere with a Large Aperture Bow (LAB) Array and the 12 individual vertical-launch missile tubes with two Virginia payload tubes (VPTs), which will each initially carry six missiles in multiple all-up round canisters. The new LAB Array eliminates hundreds of hull penetrations and replaces transducers with lower cost, life-of-the-ship hydrophones. By nearly doubling the payload space available from 1,200 cubic feet with the 12 vertical launch tubes to 2,300 cubic feet, the VPTs will enable Virginia-class ships to deploy a wider variety of payloads.

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