The U.S. Navy this week awarded General Dyamics Electric Boat a $269 million contract modification to build 42 more missile tubes for the upcoming Columbia-class and U.K. Dreadnought-class submarines.
The award covers the missile tubes as well as missile tube outfitting mat.e.rial under the U.S.-U.K. Common Missile Compartment program. Both countries will use the same missile compartment for their next-generation, nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines.
General Dynamics has subcontracted the tube work to companies including BWX Technologies, of Lynchburg, Va., which last year disclosed that it had incorrectly welded a dozen tubes. BWX Technologies took a roughly $30 million charge on the mistake, but still bid on the next round of tube work expected to be funded by the award announced Monday.
The Navy will obligate $49.5 million of the funds just awarded in the 2019 fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.
BWX Technologies’ 2017 welding issues consumed 15 of the 23 months of schedule margin built into the Common Missile Compartment program, according to an April report by the Government Accountability Office.
Since 2014, General Dynamics has given BWX Technologies three tube subcontracts, worth about $75 million in total, for production and delivery of 26 tubes by 2021. Those contracts account for about half of the tubes General Dynamics had ordered prior to Monday’s funding announcement.
The Navy is replacing 12 Ohio-class submarines with 10 Columbia-class submarines starting in the early 2030s. BWX Technologies will also manufacture the reactors for Columbia-class boats.
Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor staff report Dan Leone contributed to this story from Washington. The story first appeared in NS&DM affiliate publication Defense Daily.
