Hi everyone,
Earlier, I posted a thread concerning my upcoming build of USS Tucson, SSN-770. As I mentioned in that thread, after I built a model of the USS Guitarro for a former shipmate, he asked me to build models of the USS Tucson, SSN-770 and the USS Arizona, SSN-803 for display at his local SubVets chapter. Building the Tucson is not a tough challenge, but on the other hand, the USS Arizona SSN-803 has not yet been built. As you can imagine, information is kinda sparse about it right now, so I reached out to the experts on the submarines forum. Many thanks to Tom Dougherty for pointing me in the right direction to the information that is currently available on the Block V design.
In my research, I found out that Arizona will have some significant differences from initial Virginia Class ships. The Arizona SSN will be a Block V submarine of the Virginia class. Interestingly, the new Virginia class of submarines has already gone through 5 significant changes, almost warranting establishment of a distinct new class. The most significant difference with the Block V ships will be an approximately 70-foot Vertical Payload Module inserted amidships, stretching the hull to about 460 feet from the 377 feet of the initial Virginia Class.
The Arizona will apparently use the same propulsion system as the rest of the Virginia Class, which is based on the S9G (ninth generation submarine reactor by General Electric) pressurized water reactor. The addition of 70+ feet will no doubt impact the performance of the ship in comparison to the initial Virginia Class maximum speed of 25+ knots.
For this model, I am beginning with the HobbyBoss USS Virginia kit. There are two drawings of the proposed ship that I am working from, shown below:
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Virginia Block V 1-350.jpg [ 28.26 KiB | Viewed 3724 times ]
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Virginia Block V photo 2 1-350.jpg [ 72.72 KiB | Viewed 3724 times ]
Readers who are more conversant with contemporary nautical terminology will excuse me, but the locations of the lower hull sonar bulges (I don’t know their actual names) differ between the drawings. From examining the two drawings above, it appears that I will have to modify the hull to relocate the ‘sonar bulges.’ If anyone can tell me which drawing to follow, it would be greatly appreciated.
Another difference I noted was that the sail appears quite a bit taller on the Block V subs. This makes a lot of sense; the Parche, which had a 100-foot section added amidships, also had a larger sail than other 637 Class submarines.
The drawings differ on rudder size, but it makes sense that the control surfaces would be larger on a larger boat, so I will opt to replicate a larger rudder.
As a bit of background, on 23 December 2019, the US Navy announced the naming of SSN-803 as USS Arizona. So you might ask, as I did, “What about the battleship Arizona that already carries the name? How come we’re going to give her name to a new ship?”
Here are some excerpts from Wikipedia.org:
“Unlike USS Constitution, Arizona is not perpetually in commission. Arizona is under the control of the National Park Service, but the U.S. Navy still retains the title. Arizona retains the right, in perpetuity, to fly the United States flag as if she were an active, commissioned naval vessel.”
Also from wikipedia.org: “The new Arizona will be built at Electric Boat in Groton, Conn. SSN-803 through approximately SSN-812 are planned to make up the Fifth Block. Block V involves 10 boats and may incorporate the Virginia Payload Module (VPM), which would give guided-missile capability when the SSGNs are retired from service. The Block V subs are expected to triple the capacity of shore targets for each boat. Construction on the first two boats of this block was expected to begin in 2019 but was pushed back to 2020, with contracts for long lead time material for SSN-802 and SSN-803 being awarded to General Dynamic's Electric Boat. HII Newport News Shipbuilding was awarded a long-lead materials contract for two Block V boats in 2017, the first Block Vs for the company. On 2 December 2019, the Navy announced an order for nine new Virginia-class submarines – eight Block Vs and one Block IV – for a total contract price of $22 billion with an option for a tenth boat. The Block V subs were confirmed to have an increased length, from 377 ft to 460 ft, and displacement, from 7,800 tons to 10,200 tons. This would make the Block V the second-largest US submarine, behind only the Ohio-class (at 560 ft).”
I don’t see any way around making numerous cuts to the hull during the stretching process, so to build this model, I’ve bought two HobbyBoss Virginia kits. I sure didn’t want to scratchbuild hull sections!

One of the hulls will make up the basis for the finished product; the rest that isn’t used will be discarded.
The new Arizona will no doubt have SHT (Special Hull Treatment.) I’m not going to try to replicate that because my customer is not insisting on this. I intend to paint the upper hull black and the lower hull and sonar dome a black-gray.
I will begin work on this model shortly; I’m currently waiting for a mitre box and saw to arrive so that I can make accurate and neat cuts. In the meantime, if you have any experience with building this kit, including tips and critiques, I hope you will post your comments. I'm especially eager to hear from anyone who is considering this kind of conversion or has already tackled it. Any input will be greatly appreciated!
John
