Breaking Defense | May 21, 2025

The “greatest risk” for the Navy’s planned fiscal 2034 delivery of the nuclear Sea-Launched Cruise Missile Nuclear (SLCM-N) is integrating it onboard Virginia-class submarines that were never designed to carry a nuclear weapon, one of the Navy’s top officers in charge of overseeing nuclear weapons programs said.

After establishing a program office for the SLCM-N  last year, the Navy is just starting to “hone in” on technical concepts for integrating the at times controversial weapon with the Virginia-class, as well as ironing out the operational questions involved with adding a new mission for the sailors onboard, said Vice. Adm Johnny Wolfe, director of the Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs.

“This will be a whole new infrastructure that we have to stand up and so getting all of those things in place, getting the weapon system done, but as importantly, getting the fleet trained … that’s going to be the one of the challenging parts of this,” said Vice. Adm Johnny Wolfe, director of the Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs.