The Navy's Director of Undersea Warfare told Congress that a new nuclear-armed submarine launched cruise missile would be fired from Virginia-class attack submarines, marking a shift for the historically conventionally-armed attack submarines into a nuclear deterrence role.

“While Virginia-class submarines can use conventional deterrence to keep adversaries in check, a sub-launched cruise missile with a nuclear warhead would be incorporated into Virginias and give national command authority additional escalation control,” Rear Adm. John Tammen, Director, Undersea Warfare Division, told lawmakers.