House authorizers are directing the Navy to install the Virginia Payload Module on all Block V Virginia-class submarines because of the lack of undersea strike capacity the service will have in the 2020s, according to a committee aide. Installing VPM on one sub a year, as the Navy's current plan suggests, will introduce inefficiencies into the industrial base, a committee aide said April 22. "We believe that VPM needs to be resident on all Block V Virginia-class submarines," the staffer...
