General Dynamics CEO: Electric Boat will see 'significant growth' over next decade

General Dynamics' Electric Boat sales are set to double over the next decade, driven by the Columbia-class program, the company's chief executive said today.

Speaking at a conference hosted by Baird, Phebe Novakovic said the unit will see "a significant growth."

She argued that the company's work on the Virginia-class submarine program has positioned it to succeed on the Columbia-class program, which it expects to begin building at the end of next year.

"Whenever you start a new program, you have embedded risk," Novakovic said. "It's our job to mitigate that risk."

She said General Dynamics is about 55% done with the construction documents.

"To give you, again, a sense of our preparedness to begin Columbia: On Virginia, we were at construction about 43% done with the construction drawings," Novakovic said. "We will be 85% done with the construction drawings for Columbia."

"This is a very big and complex program, and we're ready to do it," she added. "We have accelerated all of our engineering and design so we are really ready to build."