Shortly after General Dynamics’ NASSCO division received a contract to build the first six U.S. Navy oilers, Electric Boat, another GD division was awarded a $116 million contract modification to manufacture Virginia payload modules and South Dakota insertion prototype materials in support of Virginia-class submarines.
Work will mostly be performed in Mount Vernon, Indiana (25.5 percent); Depew, New York (21 percent) and Manassas, Virginia (19 percent).
The contracting authority, The Naval Sea Systems Command, expects the manufacturing to be completed by November 2019.
USS South Dakota is a prototype Virginia class submarine equipped with high-tech upgrades aimed at maintaining the “U.S. Navy’s undersea supremacy well into the 21st century”.
Quieter than its predecessors, the USS South Dakota will be designed with a reactor plant that will not require refueling during the planned life of the ship, reducing lifecycle costs while increasing underway time.