$22.2 billion Virginia Class award is Navy’s largest-ever shipbuilding contract

Virginia-class attack submarine. [U.S. Navy photpgraph courtesy of HII by Ashley Cowan)

General Dynamics Electric Boat Corp. (GDEB), Groton, Conn., has been awarded the U.S. Navy’s largest ever shipbuilding contract. Worth $22,209,893,409 it covers the construction of nine Virginia-class submarines, eight with Virginia Payload Module (VPM), from fiscal 2019 to fiscal 2023.

The nine latest submarines are the fifth block of Virginia-class submarines to be built by GDEB and major subcontractor Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding division, inclusive of design support and all efforts necessary to test and deliver each submarine.

Block V submarines will incorporate acoustic superiority design changesand the VPM, with four large payload tubes in a new hull section on eight submarines, increasing Tomahawk strike capacity from 12 to 40 missiles per boat to maintain undersea strike capacity with the expected retirement of the Navy’s four guided-missile submarines and providing future payload flexibility.

“Block V Virginias and Virginia Payload Module are a generational leap in submarine capability for the Navy,” said Program Executive Officer for Submarines Rear Adm. David Goggins. “These design changes will enable the fleet to maintain our nation’s undersea dominance.”

The Block V contract is the culmination of substantial collaboration between the Navy and shipbuilders.

“The Navy and shipbuilders worked together to produce a contract that is both fair and reasonable to the Navy, taxpayers and industry,” said Goggins.

To date, the Navy has taken delivery of 18 Virginia-class submarines, and all 10 Block IV submarines are under construction. Contract delivery of the first Block V submarine is FY 2025.

The award includes spare material and an option for one additional submarine with VPM. If the option is exercised, the cumulative value of th contract will increase to $24,097,439,556.

The awarded amounts include previously-announced material awards (including long-lead-time material and economic ordering quantity material) totaling $3,197,633,908.