September 22, 2003

Electric Boat wins $43.5 million Virginia Class R&D award
The U.S. Navy has awarded General Dynamics Electric Boat a $43.5 million contract modification for research and development work on the Virginia-class submarine program. Electric Boat is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD).

This award modifies a five-year, $78 million contract announced in September 2000 that will be worth $480 million if all options are exercised and funded. Under the terms of this modification, Electric Boat will perform development studies for Virginia-class design improvements, and will continue to evaluate new technologies for insertion into succeeding Virginia-class submarines. Work will be performed in Groton (94 percent), Quonset Point, R.I. (5 percent) and Newport, R.I. (1 percent), and is expected to be completed by September 2004.

Electric Boat, teamed with Northrop Grumman Newport News, has contracts worth a total of $12.8 billion to build the first 10 ships of the class. Electric Boat will deliver the lead ship, Virginia (SSN-774), in 2004.