NUWC lab will launch ideas for uses of big payload tube on future submarines

Inside the "launcher laboratory" at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, underneath a large hatch, stands a tube 30 feet high.

Eventually the 15-by-15-foot hatch will open and a crane will lower in weapons and sensors — and whatever other new technology defense researchers can dream up — to be launched from the "Virginia Payload Tube."

The payload tube is identical to the vertical missile launch tubes designed for new Virginia-class submarines. Beginning with the North Dakota, currently under construction, new Virginia-class boats will have two launch tubes, each with a diameter of about 7 feet, instead of 12 smaller ones that each can hold only a single Tomahawk cruise missile.

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