The Navy last week awarded General Dynamics (GD) Electric Boat a contract worth $76.6 billion to build nine Virginia-class Block VI attack submarines (SSNs) and five Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) after years of delays.
The Navy has been negotiating this deal with prime contractor Electric Boat and HII for up to 10 Block VI SSNs as well as a contract for another five Columbia-class SSBNs for years. Congress first authorized the Navy to award this contract in the fiscal year 2024 defense authorization act and they were expected to be procured for the funding period of FY 2024 to 2028.
General Dynamics is the prime contractor but Electric Boat and HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding split production on each attack and nuclear ballistic missile submarine.
The award is split into $42.1 billion for Virginia-class submarines SSN-814 to 822, $29.5 billion for Columbia-class submarines SSBN-828 to 832, and $5 billion for shipyard enhancements. According to a Navy statement, the Virginia-class submarines cover fiscal years 2025 to 2029.
With this contract, the Navy has seven Columbia-class submarines under contract, 26 operational Virginia-class boats and 23 more SSNs set to be built.
Beyond the 14 submarines, the award includes a 10th shipset of SSN material and investments in shipbuilder productivity efforts.
“The Block VI award includes previously announced material awards (including long-lead-time material and economic ordering quantity material). The announcement also includes previously awarded investments in shipbuilder productivity efforts,” the Navy announcement said.
The work is expected to run through July 2038.
When asked about the reports of Pentagon approval for Block VI boats during GD’s second quarter earnings call on Wednesday morning, Chairwoman and CEO Phebe Novakovic said they were “told that these contracts will be coming soon.”
Novakovic said she thinks “the customer and the submarine industrial base are aligned around the need for getting these contracts out, particularly to stabilize the industrial base and to ensure that we continue to have long lead material for these contracted in advance of these long-term development programs.”
Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily first published a version of this story.