PROVIDENCE — The Navy awarded a $17.6-billion contract on Monday evening to General Dynamics Electric Boat to build 10 more Virginia-class attack submarines, the company and U.S. Sen. Jack Reed announced.
Electric Boat builds the 377-foot submarines at shipyards at Quonset Point in North Kingstown and in Groton, Conn., in a teaming arrangement with Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia.
“This is going to be a great support for our economy,” Reed said in an interview. “It means real jobs, good jobs for Rhode Islanders.”
Reed said that Electric Boat, already one of the leading employers in the state, plans to hire an additional 600 workers because of the new contract.
Electric Boat employs more than 12,000 people at all locations, company spokesman Robert A. Hamilton said in January. That includes 2,767 at Quonset, of whom 2,436 are Rhode Islanders. The company has another 48 employees at an engineering office in Newport. It has 5,936 workers at its main shipyard in Groton, 987 of whom are from Rhode Island, and 2,956 at its engineering office in New London, Conn., 447 from Rhode Island.
The news was hardly unexpected — Electric Boat is already deeply involved in planning for the group of Virginia-class submarines that will be built after the ones in the new contract — but comes as a relief after several years of partisan budget brinkmanship in Congress threatened deep cuts in military spending.
Congress essentially called a two-year truce in the budget battle, suspending deep, automatic cuts called sequestration.
“We have budget stability for the next two years,” Reed said.
Beyond that, the budget-making process is less certain, but Reed points to the signed contract with the Navy and the fleet's need to replace aging Los Angeles-class attack submarines as a sign that the Virginia-class program doesn't face great risk.
“I think we're in pretty good shape on these ships,” Reed said. “This is pretty solid news.”
Under the contract, Electric Boat will begin work on two subs each year for the next five years. Construction of the first sub under the new contract is expected to begin Thursday, and the 10th sub is scheduled to be delivered to the Navy in 2023.
The Virginia class is designed to perform the traditional roles of attack subs — hunting and sinking surface ships and other submarines — as well as creeping close to enemy shores, gathering intelligence and supporting special-operations forces.
The 7,800-ton submarines are 34 feet in diameter. They can travel faster than 25 knots and dive deeper than 800 feet. In addition to torpedoes, they are armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles and can launch unmanned undersea vehicles — drone submarines.
The Navy plans 30 vessels in the Virginia class. Ten have already been delivered, and eight more are under construction.
The submarines each begin as large sections called supermodules, which are built at the shipyard in Quonset Point. The supermodules then are shipped to EB's shipyard in Groton, or to Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia, where they are assembled into finished submarines.
“Quonset is the key to the whole production cycle. Every boat begins at Quonset Point,” Reed said. “Without Quonset, the program wouldn't be as effective in terms of a quality ship and the whole cost issue.”
Electric Boat and the Virginia-class program have become models for naval shipbuilding, growing a reputation of delivering boats ahead of schedule and under budget.
Reed said that makes the submarines an easier sell in Congress.
“It's a testimony to the great workers at Electric Boat,” he said. “We have a great work force.”
“This is the fabric of Rhode Island,” said U.S. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) about Block Island. “I often tell people to come to the island. It’s a wonderful place to live and visit. I think it’s one of the loveliest places in the country.”
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