Halibut Hangar

Originally Published May 16, 2008; Updated and Republished September 05, 2008; Updated and Republished September 15, 2008; Updated and Republished December 21, 2008; Updated and Republished December 31, 2008:

Yesterday, House Armed Services Committee (HASC) completed its mark-up process for the fiscal year 2009 Defense Authorization Bill (H.R. 5658), providing $531.4 billion in budget authority. The HASC 2009 budget includes $4,145 million procurement dollars, for the Navy’s Virginia-class submarine program.

USS Virginia SSN 774

HASC added $722 million dollars to the Navy's request of $3,423.5 million dollars. The additional HASC procurement dollars aim to accelerate and increase the submarine’s annual production rate from one to two. General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman now jointly produce one submarine per year under a teaming agreement, which HASC proposes to continue for FY 2009.

The Virginia-class submarine program has been plagued by cost overruns. Many think the submarine's proposed price of $2 billion per copy must be significantly reduced for post Milestone III limited production and production to be sustainable¹.

• Manufacturers: General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman
• Displacement (tons): submerged - 7,800; surface - 7,300 (est)
• Length: (feet/meter): 377/114.9
• Beam: (feet/meter): 34/10.3
• Speed (knots/mph/kph): submerged – 34/39.1/62.9; surface – 14/16.1/25.9
• Propulsion: single shaft, pump-jet, 44,000 shp
• Power plant: S9G, advanced breeder²
• Dive Depth (feet/meter): 1,600/487.6
• Torpedo Tubes: 4; 21”
• Armaments: Mark 48 Torpedo (heavy); Block IV Cruise and Harpoon Missile; Mark 67 SLMM; littoral mining
• Standard Crew Complement: 134 men³

Web:

• UPDATED 12/31/2008 US House, Joe Courtney et al. Letter To President-elect Obama (750K pdf). Representative Courtney has coordinated a letter, signed by himself and 27 other representatives⁵.

  The representatives are urging Obama to preserve the Virginia-class submarine platform and its anticipated two submarine per year production rate, including multi-year contracting and advance procurements.

  General Dynamics Electric Boat Division is located in Groton Connecticut, part of Joe Courtney's second district.

• UPDATED 12/21/2008 NYT Editorial, How to Pay for a 21st-Century Military

  "Halt production of the Virginia class sub. Ten of these unneeded attack submarines — modeled on the cold-war-era Seawolf, whose mission was to counter Soviet attack and nuclear launch submarines — have already been built. The program is little more than a public works project to keep the Newport News, Va., and Groton, Conn., naval shipyards in business."--NYT--

  It's no accident that Navy acquisition is planning to purchase 10 8 more Virginia class submarines (20 18 total) before the next administration takes office.

  • UPDATED 12/23/2008 NavyTimes, Navy orders 8 new Virginia-class subs
  • UPDATED 12/22/2008 Reuters, General Dynamics and Northrop awarded submarine deal (Fixed Price Incentive Contract⁴—N00024-09-C-2104)

  It will be a shame to unnecessarily waste so many dollars in contract cancellation and close-out.

• UPDATED 9/15/2008 Senate votes to begin work on 2009 Defense Authorization Bill; See S.3001 for text of legislation—Subtitle C--Navy Programs--Sec. 131. is the advanced procurement for the Virginia-class submarine. See Roll Call Vote 197 for official tally. See H.R 5658 for House companion legislation.

• UPDATED 09/05/2008 Navy's Newest Submarine Class Conducts Tomahawk Cruise Missile Launches.This Navy reporting does not state what Tomahawk cruise missile variant(s) was/were launched, whether those variants were block III and/or IV or whether all or part of the launches were successful.

  It's unclear what "boundaries pushing" Rear Admiral William Hilarides (PMS-PEO 450) is referring to—however, launching cruise missiles from a submarine is not boundary pushing.

  The current Los Angles class submarines, SSN 688 through 773, have been successfully launching all Tomahawk cruise missile variants through Block III, for many years.

• UPDATED 06/18/2008 Winter: Fewer Subs For Now. Speaking at the United States Naval War College Secretary of Navy, Donald C. Winter said he does not support increasing the Virginia-class submarine production rate (from one to two per year).

  ”There is no silver-bullet solution to this financial problem,...We must figure out how to build a more cost-effective fleet and build a fleet that is less costly to operate.”--Donald C. Winter--

Res: Northrop Grumman Marketing Data for U.S. Navy's Virginia-class Attack Submarine Program and Promotional Photos.

-----notes-----

1. The submarine is currently costing $2.5 billion per submarine.

2. Likely, the fertile actinoid Thorium 232 in a heavy water moderator, using an advanced fuel rod geometry (i.e. high power density) configuration.

3. Note two, concerning women on Virginia-class submarines has been removed—see comments.

The Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS) has recommended to the Secretary of the Navy and the Chief of Naval Operations that they commit to the integration of women into the submarine community and develop an implementation plan for doing so.

DACOWITS has also recommended that the Secretary of the Navy direct redesign of Virginia-class submarines to accommodate mixed gender crews.

4. Each submarine is purchased without weapons for a fixed price of say $1.65 billion current dollars (weapons are purchased separately for, say another $.850 billion).

The contractor is then "incentivized" with additional dollars, as a function of capital investment (which is huge for shipbuilding) depending on negotiated performance goals.

Contracting on a fixed price basis without an established and fixed submarine design is illusory. The fixed price effectively becomes cost reimbursement each time the design is changed (this applies to the submarine's weapons as well as the submarine itself).

It is useful to use total cost of ownership (aka life-cycle costs) figures as opposed to any single announced price tag. An announced price tag always comes with so many assumptions about future events that it rarely if ever is meaningful or represents the true price, even within large margins of error!

5. Representatives James Langevin, J. Randy Forbes, Brad Ellsworth, Robert Wittman, Betty Sutton, Rosa DeLauro, Robert Brady, Patrick Kennedy, Henry Brown, Robin Hayes, Time Ryan, Michael Doyle, Michael Michaud, Carol Shea-Porter, John Culberson, Paul Hodes, Peter King, John Larson, Jack Kingston, Bob Goodlatte, Timothy Bishop, Christopher Murphy, Madeleine Bordallo, Robert Scott, Norman Dicks, Carolyn McCarthy, and Elijah Cummings.