Navy to Issue Ohio Replacement Design RFP in December

The Navy plans to release an RFP for the Ohio-class Replacement’s (OR’s) design phase in December, the chief of the service’s Submarines program said yesterday. “That will then fund the design work—both the [Navy shipbuilding budget] SCN and the research and development-funded elements through the lead ship,” Rear Adm. David Johnson, Program Executive Officer for Submarines, said during the Sea-Air-Space Conference at National Harbor, Md. Johnson told reporters after a panel discussion that he will then disclose the “complete detailed design” to the manufacturer. “It does all the prototyping,” he said. “We deliver qualified components to manufacturers.” Johnson said the Navy’s delivery differs from the branch’s previous acquisition process, in which the Navy outlined specifications and told contractors to find the appropriate parts. “Now, we deliver a component that’s been qualified, improved, and we know the touch points, the weight, the size, all the characteristics,” he said. “That way we only design stuff once. We don’t design it 50 times.”

 

General Dynamics Electric Boat has been working a research and development contract for OR since Fiscal Year 2012. The Navy expects to issue an RFP for lead ship construction in FY 2019, and to authorize manufacturing in FY 2021. The first OR is expected to enter patrol in FY 2031.