The Navy has been able to reduce the cost of the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine by $80 million per unit and the program remains on schedule, a top Navy acquisition official said last week.
Rear Adm. Michael Jabaley, Program Executive Officer (PEO) for Submarines, said Nov. 2 that after the Columbia program reached Milestone B in late 2016 and transitioned to the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase, average procurement unit cost (APUC) was $7.3 billion.
That was the average cost across all planned 12 boomers set to be produced, in 2017 dollars, Jabaley said at the 2017 Annual Naval Submarine League Symposium.
The Columbia program has an affordability cap assigned at $8 billion per unit, 110 percent of the APUC achieved. However, Jabaley highlighted that in the year since Milestone B was achieved, PEO Submarines has reduced the cost by $80 million per hull, down to $7.1 billion.
He said this was done through a combination of innovative legislative authority and contracting techniques. This includes missile tube continuous production construction and advanced construction.
Missile tube continuous production refers to the ongoing development of the Common Missile Compartment, which will be integrated into both Columbia-class and the UK Royal Navy Dreadnought-class ballistic missile sub. Continuous production of the tubes aims to keep manufacturing rates level for producers despite differing acquisition timelines for the U.S. and UK navies.
“Really the focus of that was to reduce the risk of not delivering on time. But it had an added benefit of savings as well,” Jabaley said.
