Two Virginias

For the first time in more than two decades, the Navy has begun the construction of a second submarine in a single fiscal year.

On Sept. 2, the General Dynamics Electric Boat-Huntington Ingalls industry team building the Navy's new attack submarines began work on SSN 787, the second Virginia-class boat under construction in fiscal year 2011 -- realizing a long-term goal set by service leaders in 2005 to reduce costs in order to double annual production rates, according to the Navy.

Rear Adm. David Johnson, program executive officer for submarines, said in a statement today:

To get to this important point, our Navy/industry shipbuilding team executed a very successful design for affordability program that yielded significant cost savings and has allowed the Navy to increase production in a fiscally-responsible manner. A great deal of our success comes from increasing construction efficiencies; our last two submarines were delivered in 65 months, which is eight months early to their contract delivery date and we are well on our way to getting that number down to 60 months for our two fiscal year 2012 authorized boats.

The SSN 787 is being build under a $14 billion multiyear contract the Navy awarded in December 2009, covering purchases through FY-13.

Capt. Michael Jabaley, the Virginia class program manager recently tapped for promotion in rank, said in a statement, “Building two submarines per year is the most economical way to procure these boats and will help ensure that our submarine force has the platforms it needs to carry out its various missions.”

The plan to build two boats in FY-11 was temporarily put at risk earlier this year when the Pentagon was forced to operate for the first seven months of the fiscal year under a stopgap spending measure, which included a prohibition on increasing production rates for all federal procurement programs.

General Dynamics twice extended pricing terms for the second boat, allowing the Virginia-class production plan to remain largely on track. It has been 22 years since the Navy last built two submarines in a single year, according to a service statement.