The Navy earlier this month issued a new sources sought notice conducting market research to identify shipyard vendors capable of being prime construction yards for the next-generation attack submarine, or SSN(X), program.
While the notice, due Oct. 15, sought sources able to act as prime builders in the next submarine that will succeed the Virginia-class boat, in reality the requirements narrow down choices to current submarine builders General Dynamics’ (GD) Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS).
The Virginia-class submarine is expected to deploy the nuclear-armed, sea-launched cruise missile and include a variant of the W80-4 warhead, something the National Nuclear Security Administration is already working on.
Currently, Electric Boat acts as the prime contractor for current submarines while partnering with NNS with each shipyard assembling final components for each submarine. Both shipbuilders have increasingly outsourced manufacturing of some of the modular work for Virginia-class subs, with the shipyards assembling the larger pieces. Austal USA in particular has a Mobile, Ala., facility that in recent years has taken on an increasing amount of module manufacturing work for the primes.
The Navy previously said it plans for SSN(X) to include the latest features of new Virginia-class submarines, including the larger missile complement starting in the boats featuring a Virginia Payload Module (VPM). Block V submarines are the first set to include the new mid-body VPM that increases the SSN’s maximum Tomahawk cruise missile complement from 37 to 65 missiles.
In August, the Navy announced it is reclassifying 19 planned Block V and VI VPM-equipped Virginia-class boats as guided missile submarines (SSGNs), starting with the future USS Arizona (SSGN-803) to deliver in fiscal year 2029. These submarines are meant to replace the four aging Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines converted into SSGNs that each field up to 154 Tomahawks.
This solicitation came days after Anduril Industries announced plans for a new large shipbuilding facility in Maryland aimed at producing submarine parts, potentially scaling up to produce large modules for the main shipbuilders.
