Halibut Hangar

Originally Published on June 18, 2008; Updated and Republished on October 23, 2008:

On June 21, 2008 the fifth Virginia-class submarine, USS New Hampshire (SSN 778) will be christened at the General Dynamic, Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, Connecticut.

Director of Naval Reactors, Admiral Kirkland Donald will speak accompanied by the submarine's sponsor, Cheryl McGuinness (widow of Thomas McGuinness, co-pilot on American Airlines Flight 11).

Commissioning is expected to occur October 25, 2008 at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (Wikimapia Aerial View) in Kittery, Maine, across the Piscataqua River from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. (see Commissioning - New Hampshire (SSN-778))

Web:

• UPDATED 10/23/2008 NavSource Online, Navy Commissions Submarine New Hampshire [on Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 10 am - Navy Webcast]
• UPDATED 06/21/2008NavSource Online, New Hampshire (SSN-778)

• UPDATED 06/20/2008 Christening of New Hampshire (SSN-778) Webcast General Dynamics, Electric Boat Division will webcast the ceremonies beginning 10:30 eastern time. It will be available for on-demand replay, too.

  UPDATED 06/21/2008 Every speaker is clearly sensitized to the need for very significant cost reductions in the Virginia-class submarine program—advanced technology is useless if you cannot afford¹ it or recoup the costs²!

  The price is currently hovering around $2.5-2.3 billion per submarine. A "Design for Affordability Program" (DFAP) is expected to reduce the price further when amortized over all submarine production blocks.

  Unfortunately, DFAP, is starting from a $2.5+ billion baseline, $500+ million over the promised $2 billion per submarine. The DFAP is eliminating a gigantic cost over-run not guaranteeing a sustainable production of the Virginia-class submarine.

  Perhaps Admiral Kirkland Donald summarized it best:

  "...crew, thanks for the hard work there's more to follow."

• Navy Announces Christening of Submarine New Hampshire

-----notes-----

1. For example every submarine driver would prefer a titanium or composite hull because each provide an increased operational envelop and very little or no magnetic cross-section—neither material are yet sustainably affordable for large scale submarine production (only boutique or exotic craft use them).

2. For example, a new SSBN (ballistic missile submarine) might incur additional costs perfecting air independent hydrogen fuel cell (HFC) technology for submarine propulsion.

While the total apparent cost for each new SSBN submarine would be enormous its effective cost is quite small after amortizing the benefits of commercialized HFC technology over usage in, say, vehicle propulsion.