The U.S. Navy awarded $967.2 million to General Dynamics Electric Boat Corp. in the latest of a series of “cost-plus-fixed-fee” modifications to an earlier contract, to cover development and design work on future production of Virginia-class nuclear submarines.
Virginia-class subs are fast-attack, missile-armed vessels designed for anti-submarine warfare and intelligence gathering operations. While the Virginia-class program has been underway for over two decades, the Navy plans a total of 66 new submarines and anticipates they will replace the Los Angeles-class subs over the coming decades.
Electric Boat is one of two contractors assigned to build the subs (the other is Huntington Ingalls’ Newport News Shipbuilding), and nearly all of the work for the current assignment will be carried out at Electric Boat’s Groton, Conn., operation.
In its announcement, the U.S. Dept. of Defense noted that the design and development work will be completed by October 2024.
