At the Quonset Point, R.I., shipyard last week, riggers and welders were busy bending steel into the first pieces of a new class of nuclear attack submarines. When launched in 2004, the U.S.S. Virginia will be the first of a fearsome nuclear family, 30 vessels bristling with 38 weapons apiece. Designed to prowl the world's shallow coastal waters, where the Navy believes future conflicts could erupt, Virginia-class subs will whisper above the ocean floor, making only 10% of the noise of today's already library-quiet submarines.
Each 377-ft. sub will feature highly sophisticated wake suppressors and pollution controls to mask its...