By Geoff Fein
NEWPORT NEWS, Va.–Although contract award for construction of Block III of the Virginia class submarines is not expected until the end of the year, both General Dynamics [GD] Electric Boat and Northrop Grumman [NOC] Newport News (NGNN) have already begun building prototypes of systems planned for the next series of eight submarines.
“Today Electric Boat and we have already started construction of prototypes for both payload tubes and the new bow sonar array which, after they are tested, we will incorporate into later ships of the Block III construction,” Tom Ward, program manager Virginia-class construction, told Defense Daily in a recent interview.
Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding (NGSB) submitted its proposal for Block III in May. The Navy has been reviewing the proposal and NGSB has responded to the service’s questions, a company spokeswoman said. NGSB anticipates starting negotiations soon, she added.
Among the 94 different design changes are plans to transition from 12 vertical launch tubes down to two payload tubes similar to what is on the converted Ohio-class submarines (SSGN). That effort will give the Virginia-class boats commonality with the SSGNs, Ward noted.
And, like the SSGN, the Block III Virginia-class boats will use the Multiple All-Up-Rounds Canister (MAC), designed to carry six Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Block III will also introduce a new Large Aperture Bow array, replacing the sonar spherical array, that will cost less to build and install, Ward said (Defense Daily, Aug. 5).
And NGNN will also make a substantial capital investment, on the order of $200 million, for the Block III boats, Ken Mahler, vice president Navy programs, told Defense Daily during the same interview.
Among the investments will be improved covered facilities, process improvements, quality of life improvements for workers and productivity enhancements required to move toward building two submarines a year, he added.
Newport News is anticipating increasing its workforce once the yard begins working on two submarines a year, officials said. That will also help NGNN should the Navy decide to build more Virginia-class boats than originally planned.
“The class was advertised at 30, but [the Navy] has been talking recently about continuing to build Virginia class to bridge over to the SSBN(X) program,” Ward said. “So, now they are talking [about] a 41-boat class.”
Although the Navy has not proposed any new designs for a next-generation ballistic missile submarine, efforts such as Tango Bravo are leading to new ideas that could find their way onto future boats, Charles Southall, director advanced submarine programs, told Defense Daily during the same interview.
“Last year we said we’ve come up with a new and innovative way to launch weapons externally from the submarine, eliminating the need for a torpedo room…freeing up that space,” he said. “We’ve done that and proven, that at full-scale, we can do that at shallow depths.”
The external weapon system was demonstrated in a pond at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., Southall said.
“Today I can sit across the table from you and tell you in one year’s time we have taken that concept, taken that real full-scale launcher and done two additional things with it,” he said. “We have taken it down to Kings Bay and proven in a full-scale scenario that we can load and unload that launcher from a simulated submarine in a time span that is equivalent or less than what it takes us to load weapons onto a nuclear submarine today.”
From a feasibility standpoint, that’s a very powerful message, Southall added.
“The second thing is that we have not only done that, but we have taken that launcher, again at full-scale, out to the West Coast and just as recently as yesterday (July 30) I got the results back from the latest round of tests,” he said.
Testers have taken the launcher, submerged it to full submarine test depth, and proven they can fire a full-scale weapon at depth from outside the pressure hull and achieve all the acceleration and velocity metrics needed to successfully launch a Mk 48 torpedo, Southall said.
“Those kinds of projects speak volumes for the ability to maintain that engineering resource and to go onto the next submarine design,” he added.
NGNN has also begun early engineering studies looking at critical manufacturing centers and critical engineering technologies, Southall said.