Only months before the Navy is scheduled to award its first attack submarine construction contract incorporating a highly anticipated new module, the service and that module's vendor corrected a problem that stood to delay production if it remained unaddressed. The first Virginia-class attack submarine contract to incorporate the Virginia Payload Module (VPM) will be awarded in October. VPM is an 84-foot hull section with four additional payload tubes, each capable of carrying seven Tomahawk cruise missiles or various other payloads,...
