US Navy further invests into Virginia-class submarines

19th October 2021 - 17:58 GMT | by The Shephard News Team

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The Virginia-class attack submarine Pre-Commissioning Unit Minnesota pulls pierside at Naval Station Norfolk. (Photo: US Navy)

General Dynamics has received a contract modification from the US DoD to perform additional work for the USN’s Virginia-class submarines.

Electric Boat Corporation, a subsidiary of General Dynamics, has been awarded a contract modification valued at over $269 million by the US DoD for work related to the Virginia-class submarines.

General Dynamics will perform lead yard support, development studies and design efforts.

The original contract was awarded in October 2019 by PEO Submarines and has an expected completion date of October 10, 2024.

The contract has a ceiling value of $1.9 billion and there have been over $867 million made in obligations so far.

The USN's Virginia-class submarines are built by both General Dynamics and Huntington Ingalls Industries.

They are nuclear-powered attack submarines intended to replace the old Los Angeles-class submarines.

According to Shephard Defence Insight, around 48 submarines are planned, with a total of 38 currently ordered. 19 have been delivered from multiple blocks.

However, there is still major work required to field these submarines. The USN’s public shipyards require overhauls to accommodate the new class.

Delays, due to inadequate infrastructure, have caused submarines to shorten deployments or miss them entirely. Over the past 12 years, attack submarine overhauls took 20-40% longer than planned.