LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Virginia Class Submarine: Electric Boat
built 263 days ago
Pentagon Undersecretary for Acquisition Edward "Pete" Aldridge has suggested shipyards are billing the Navy for excessive costs on the Virginia-class submarine program. The submarines are built jointly by Northrop Grumman Newport News in Virginia and the Electric Boat yard owned by General Dynamics in Groton, Connecticut. A spokesman for the shipyard team had no immediate comment, but company executives have said repeatedly that the Navy's low rate of production forces higher costs. At the rate of one submarine per year, they have said, material cannot be bought in large enough quantities to save money. They have called for more authority to buy parts in bulk. See "Pentagon: Sub builders over charge," David Lerman, Dailypress.com, 3/13/03.
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Virginia is the lead ship in what will be called the Virginia Class submarine. A total of 30 ships are planned. Last year, Electric Boat and its teammate, Newport News Shipbuilding of Newport News, Va., began work on a $4.2 billion contract to build the first four ships of the class. Virginia Class submarines have been designed to affordably maintain the U.S. Navy's undersea superiority well into the 21st century.
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The Virginia Class will provide the U.S. Navy with the capabilities it requires to maintain its undersea superiority well in the 21st century. Electric Boat and its construction teammate, Northrop Grumman Newport News, are currently building the first four ships of the class under a $4.2 billion contract. Electric Boat will deliver the lead ship, Virginia (SSN-774), in 2004. A total of 30 submarines are planned for the class.
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Each ship of the Class is being constructed by both General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut and Quonset Point, Rhode Island, and by Northrop Grumman Newport News in Newport News, Virginia. Construction is being accomplished under a unique co-production teaming agreement whereby the construction of the ship’s 18 major modules has been assigned to respective yards and the delivery of each ship is alternated between each yard. Electric Boat is the prime contractor for the entire construction program. Material is ordered and work is scheduled based on the class build plan and construction schedule. It takes approximately nine million manhours of shipyard labor to build a VIRGINIA Class submarine. Each submarine costs approximately $2.2B, of which an estimated 65% is for Contractor- or Government-procured material.
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Raytheon’s Submarine High-Data-Rate (Sub HDR) multiband satellite communication (SATCOM) systems for the new Virginia Class submarine connects submariners to the above-sea world by providing HDR, multiband SATCOM capability. The Sub HDR is deployed by raising a mast-mounted antenna above the ocean's surface while the boat remains submerged at periscope depth.
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The Virginia-class submarines are ... being built at both General Dynamics Electric Boat and Northrop-Grumman’s Newport News Shipbuilding. Each shipyard constructs about one half of each ship, and for the most part they repeat the build of the same sections each time to enhance learning curve efficiencies. The constructed sections from each shipyard are barged to their counterpart, and the shipyard designated as the “delivery yard” for that ship completes the construction. The delivery yard is also where the pre-commissioning crew will be stationed, and where the ship will undergo an extensive pre-delivery certification test pro-gram. Therefore, the crew of USS Texas [SSN-775] reported to Newport News; the crew of USS Hawaii [SSN 776] reports to Electric Boat; and the crew of USS North Carolina [SSN-777] will report to Newport News.
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