General Dynamics Wins $22.2B For US Navy's Virginia-Class Submarines.

General Dynamics Electric Boat Corp. (GDEB), Groton, Connecticut, is awarded a $22,209,893,409 fixed-price-incentive, multi-year modification to previously-awarded contract N00024-17-C-2100 for construction of nine Virginia-class submarines, eight with Virginia Payload Module (VPM), from fiscal 2019 to fiscal 2023.

The US Navy Virginia-class attack submarine (Picture source: U.S. Navy)

This is the largest-ever shipbuilding contract announced by the Pentagon. General Dynamics is the prime contractor and Huntington Ingalls Industries is a major subcontractor, the US Department of Defense said in a statement Monday.

The US Navy has already received 18 boats of this class and plans to buy 40 of them in all. The Navy will take the delivery of the first ship of the new order in 2024.

Work will be performed in Newport News, Virginia (25%); Quonset Point, Rhode Island (21%); Groton, Connecticut (20%); Sunnyvale, California (8%); Norfolk, Virginia (1%); Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (1%); and Annapolis, Maryland (1%), with other efforts performed at various places throughout the U.S. below one percent (22%), and other places outside of U.S. below one percent (1%). Work is expected to be completed by August 2029.

Virginia-class submarines displace 7,800 tons, with a hull length of 377 feet and a diameter of 34 feet. With VPM, the submarines will displace 10,200 tons and have a length of 460 feet.

The submarines are capable of speeds in excess of 25 knots and can dive to a depth greater than 800 feet while carrying Mark 48 advanced capability torpedoes, Tomahawk land-attack missiles (TLAMs), and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV).