Fairbanks Morse Defense last week said it won a $99 million four-year contract to provide repair and parts for submarine Emergency Diesel Generator (EDG) overhauls on six U.S. Navy submarines.
The company and Navy did not specify which submarines will get the EDG overhauls.
This award is part of the Navy’s mitigation strategy to extend the service life of Ohio-class and Los Angeles-class submarines by up to 14 more years by working with original equipment manufacturers (OEM) to overhaul systems.
FMS said under this contract it will complete multiple EDG overhauls annually through 2030, in part by using its robotic welding platform that FMD said will improve precision and speed and using its Pit Stop methodology to reduce depot maintenance periods from months to weeks.
“Robotic welding has proven to reduce manual welding times by up to two-thirds…Inspired by NASCAR and Formula One, and co-developed with the U.S. Navy, Pit Stop eliminates “open and inspect” bottlenecks by pre-staging OEM parts needed for routine overhauls, driving a continuous cycle of component refurbishment,” the company said in a statement.
FMD said this combination of robotics, automation and the Pit Stop methodology provides a model that could broadly reduce depot-level maintenance delays and improve the availability of parts.
It also claimed that fulfilling this contract “effectively addresses the geopolitical risk of a post-2029 submarine deficit resulting from scheduled decommissionings and delays in new construction of Columbia-and Virginia-class vessels.”
Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily first published a version of this story.
