General Dynamics Electric Boat awarded contract for sub missile tubes.

The US Navy has awarded General Dynamics Electric Boat, Groton, Connecticut, a $US 269 million cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to previously awarded contract N00024-17-C-2117 for the manufacturing of 42 missile tubes and missile tube outfitting material in support of the Columbia class fleet ballistic missile submarine (SSBN), the Block V Virginia-class submarine, and the United Kingdom (UK) Dreadnought ballistic missile submarine.

An artist rendering of a Virginia-class submarine, the USS South Dakota, SSN 790 (Picture Source: US Navy)

Work will be performed in Quonset Point, Rhode Island (71 percent); and York, Pennsylvania (29 percent), and is expected to be completed by May 2028. This is a joint U.S.-UK Common Missile Compartment program, and this modification includes UK foreign military sales funding.

Fiscal 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); and foreign military funds (UK) funding in the amount of $49,500,000 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.

“This award allows Electric Boat and the submarine industrial base to continue to make preparations for the construction of Block V, which will bring additional payload capacity to the Navy. Our team will continue to produce the world’s most technologically advanced submarines, safely and efficiently," said Electric Boat President Jeffrey S. Geiger.

Block V submarines will include the Virginia Payload Module (VPM), an added section of the ship containing four large-diameter payload tubes. Extending the hull by 84 feet, the VPM will boost the submarine’s strike capabilities.