A stretched Virginia retains advantages over an Ohio converted into a guided-missile submarine, including an attack boat's sonar, torpedoes, and quieting. Fleet argues that these features let it take on hunter-killer work when required, even if a standard Virginia would be preferable. Clarke distinguishes that conditional capability from treating the two boats as interchangeable. A separate class name and SSGN designation are proposed to make the mission difference visible to people assigning deployments. Oklahoma supplies the first illustrative class name, but a later correction identifies Arizona as the first boat with the payload module; the exchange distinguishes the block's first submarine from its first enlarged submarine.
Notable Point · 2:11:22-2:13:56
A separate submarine classification could clarify mission limits
The debate separates being able to hunt submarines from being the right boat to assign that task, then considers whether classification can make the distinction clearer.