The ranking member of the House Armed Services Seapower and Projected Forces subcommittee in a Tuesday letter further pushed the Defense Department to award an overdue multi-year contract covering up to 11 Block VI Virginia-class attack submarines.
Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) has been pushing DoD to award the contract that was authorized in the fiscal 2024 defense authorization act.
In a letter to Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael Duffey, Courtney argued the delay in signing the contract is “creating uncertainty for the suppliers and shipbuilders who depend on long-lead planning to produce and acquire the components and modules for submarine construction.”
During a hearing last week, Duffey told Courtney they were “very close and I’m also aware of the urgency to get that done. So we’re working in partnership with the Navy to continue to drive that to conclusion.”
Courtney’s latest letter said signing the Block VI contract “will strengthen the critical long term demand signal to the entire submarine industrial base, enabling U.S. shipbuilders and supply chain companies to achieve the goal of higher production cadence, which the Navy’s shipbuilding plan, and the Defense Department’s AUKUS review identified as critical to our national security.”
Courtney’s district covers submarine prime contractor General Dynamics’ Electric Boat shipyard in Groton. Electric Boat splits production of each submarine with Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Newport News Shipbuilding yard in Virginia.
During the Submarine Industrial Base Council’s annual congressional breakfast on the same day as the hearing, Mark Rayha, president of Electric Boat, said government and industry were close and the contract would probably be finished within “a few months.”
Notably, Rayha mentioned one factor was likely the government getting the “organization structure set” for the new office of the Direct Reporting Program Manager (DRPM) for submarines. The Senate confirmed Vice Adm. Robert Gaucher for the role in January.
On March 5, HII CEO Chris Kastner told reporters the Office of Management and Budget, Deputy Secretary of Defense, Secretary of the Navy, Navy leadership and the president are “still very unified…behind shipbuilding. No dissenters,” but added that DoD is still setting up the DRPM office.
“There’s reorgs going on within the Navy and Secretary of War office where they’re putting DRPMs in place. And we’re fortunate that the DRPM for submarines is someone we know and respect, and I think he’s going to do a great job. But there’s been universal, across those three elements, support for shipbuilding and it continues,” Kastner added.
In the hearing last week, Courtney noted Block VI submarines would include those in line to be sold to Australia under the AUKUS agreement in 2032, 2035 and 2038.
Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily first published a version of this story.