Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
3/13/2015
Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) has awarded Electric Boat a $24.3 million modification to a November 2010 sole-source submarine research and development contract, according to a March 6 Defense Department announcement. The modification will involve engineering and technical design services to support research and development of advanced submarine technologies, to include the Ohio-class Replacement (OR). The research and development modification will, in part, support identification of OR technology options, future submarine concepts and core technologies.
Work will be performed in Groton, Conn., and is expected to be completed by October 2015. $240,000 in R&D funds from Fiscal Years 2014 and 2015 will be obligated at the time of award, and $200,000 will expire at the end of FY 2015. The R&D will support manufacturability, maintainability, production, reliability, manning, survivability, hull integrity, performance, structural, weight/margin, stability, arrangements, machinery systems, acoustics, hydrodynamics, ship control, logistics, human factors, materials, weapons handling, weapons stowage, submarine safety and affordability.
This modification stems from an original $35.9 billion cost-plus-fixed fee sole-source contract awarded to Electric Boat for engineering and technical design services to support R&D of advanced submarine technologies for “current and future submarine platforms,” according to a Pentagon announcement.
Contract Involves Two Sub Programs
The contract also entails joint development work for Virginia- and Ohio-Class submarines. NAVSEA spokesperson Colleen O’Rourke told NS&D Monitor that Navy leadership is being briefed on a study that seeks to identify common development areas between OR and the Virginia Payload Module (VPM) in the Virginia-class attack submarine in the 2020s. The Navy is expected to brief Congress about the study later this month or in April.
Sean Stackley, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, said during a Feb. 25 hearing of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower & Projection Forces that his service was exploring adjustments in the back end of the Future Years’ Defense Program (FYDP). “Ohio’s about twice of Virginia in terms of workload,” Stackley told reporters after that hearing. “So it’s a significant amount of workload that’s moving toward that industrial base, both design and production. And so what we need to do is ensure that 1, what works well today continues to work well throughout it all; 2, that the Ohio Replacement Program, which is our top priority, holds place in terms of schedule—whether it’s the design schedule, to the production schedule, and ultimately to the delivery and patrol schedule.”
