GDEB Receives $148M as Virginia Class Lead Yard
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General Dynamics Electric Boat Corporation in Groton, CT received a $148 million cost-plus-fixed-fee modification with performance incentives, under previously awarded contract N00024-05-C-2103, to exercise an option for continuation of engineering efforts associated with their role as lead construction yard for Virginia Class Submarines. The contract provides Lead (Construction) Yard engineering support that will maintain, update and support design and related drawings and data for each SSN-774 Virginia Class attack submarine, including technology insertion, throughout its construction and Post Shakedown Availability period. The contractor will also provide all engineering necessary for direct maintenance and support of Virginia Class ship specifications. Work on this contract will be performed in Groton, CT (94%); Quonset, RI (5%) and Newport, RI (1%), and is expected to be complete by September 2008. The Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington Navy Yard, D.C. issued the contract. General Dynamics release re: the Nov 2/07 modification.
The contract was initially awarded in October 2005, and a July 2007 General Dynamics release states that the contract will be worth $890 million if all options are exercised and funded. Previous awards have included:
- $116.4 million – July 16/07
- $ 61.5 million – Sept 27/06
- $ 30.6 million – June 8/06, targeted to design improvements
- $107.3 million – Oct 3/05
GDEB and Northrop Grumman’s Newport News shipyard co-operate to produce Virginia Class subs, and will continue until production of the submarines reaches 2 per year. That milestone has been repeatedly delayed, though there is now some pressure in Congress to move that date forward.
Meanwhile, the Cost Reduction Team’s proposal for a vertical payload and sonar system redesign [PDF] that leverages work done on the Ohio Class SSGNs is estimated to save $20M per sub. Two of the SSGN project’s “6-shooters” will replace 12 vertical bow tubes, and a new large aperture bow sonar array design is expected to offer improvements of its own. When combined with over 20 more projects in this major module, cost savings from the redesigns reach nearly $40 million per ship (for a $2.2+ billion submarine, which is attempting to reach $2 billion with further improvements).
