General Dynamics’ (GD) Electric Boat has been awarded a contract by the US Navy to procure long lead-time material for Virginia-class submarines, including the SSN-794, SSN-795, SSN-796 and SSN-797.
Under the $520m contract, General Dynamics Electric Boat will provide steam and electrical-plant components, main propulsion unit and ship-service turbine generator sets, as well as miscellaneous hull, mechanical and electrical-systems components to support submarines’ construction programme.
The Virginia-class advanced stealth multimission nuclear-powered submarines can support deep ocean anti-submarine warfare and littoral (shallow water) operations for the navy.
Equipped with 12 vertical missile launch tubes and four 533mm torpedo tubes, the submarines are capable of firing up to 26 Mk48 ADCAP mod 6 heavyweight torpedoes and sub harpoon anti-ship missiles from the 21in torpedo tubes.
Additional features of the boats include Northrop Grumman-built AN/WLY-1 acoustic countermeasures system, mast-mounted AN/BLQ-10 electronic support measures (ESM) and Sperry Marine AN/BPS-16(V)4 navigation radar.
In partnership with the US Navy, the Electric Boat aims to reduce ship costs, while retaining capabilities through overall efficiency improvements, decreased ship-construction labours costs and shortened ship-construction cycle times.
Work under the contract will be carried out in California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Virginia, Arizona, New York, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Illinois, Massachusetts and other efforts will be performed at various sites throughout the US.
The Virginia-class submarine programme provides capabilities required for the US Navy to dominate both the open ocean and the littorals.
Image: The US Navy’s Virginia-class submarine USS Hawaii (SSN 776) stationed at Naval Submarine Base New London. Photo: courtesy of US Navy, by John Narewski (Released).
