By Jim Morris, Warrior Vice President, News
Congress still hasn’t decided whether to slow down the pace of building Virginia-class attack submarines, but the Pentagon has awarded General Dynamics $1.3 billion to buy long lead time materials for the program.
According to a Pentagon statement, the contract modification is “in furtherance of the Navy’s commitment to the health and stability of the industrial base.” The work will be performed in more than a dozen states.
General Dynamics Electric is the prime contractor for the Virginia subs. It’s building them in an arrangement with HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding.
“This contract modification sends a crucial demand signal, enabling our suppliers to invest in the capacity and materials needed to increase production volume,” said Electric Boat President Kevin Graney. “Consistent funding for the supply base is essential to achieve the high-rate production the Navy requires of the entire submarine enterprise.”
In June, the House passed the annual defense spending bill for fiscal 2025, valued at $833 billion. It calls for procuring just one Virginia-class submarine, instead of the two the measure usually includes. That went against the wishes of a number of Republicans and Democrats on the Armed Services Committee, who had urged partially funding a second boat.
The dispute was triggered earlier this year when the Navy, in a move that shocked some observers, only asked for one of the submarines. Officials blamed a “struggling industrial base and stifled procurement funding stemming under Congressional spending caps.”
Here’s a translation: the Navy is unhappy with the pace of production. And the service is hampered by a deal Congress truck that allows defense spending to increase only one percent in the coming fiscal year. Of course, once you figure in inflation, that means defense spending will actually fall.
The Senate still hasn’t passed its own version of the defense spending bill, and it’s possible that the second Virginia-class submarine could be added back in. Still, some are wondering if it’s short-sighted to be considering a cutback in submarine production at a time when China ramping up its sub-building program.
The Virginia-class submarine is designed to replace the aging Los Angeles-class subs, some of which been retired. They’re being built under a plan to keep both the Electric Boat and Newport News shipyards in operation . The first submarine in the class, the USS Virginia, was commissioned in 2004.
Still, despite being almost a generation old, it’s widely agreed the Virginia-class has no equals. It can launch 12 Tomahawk cruise missiles in a single salvo and has fur torpedo tubes. For now, it may operate with superiority when it comes to detectability and acoustic signature, although it’s unclear how long that will last.
China and Russia have been building anti-access/area denial (A2/D2) systems, designed to keep aircraft carriers and other traditional platforms from approaching. So those who support building more Virginia-class submarines argue that more of the boats are needed to keep up the US’s ability to project power.
