USS New Mexico & Navy’s Submarine Acquisition Program

Building the Navy’s newest class nuclear submarine has been expensive and time-consuming but now the Navy is on a roll; in fact, literally on a roll as submarine New Hampshire (SSN-778) was rolled out of its construction facility in Connecticut and launched on February 21st. On the same day, submarine North Carolina (SSN-777) was delivered to the Navy in Virginia.

Two shipyards, General Dynamics Electric Boat (GDEB) and Northrop Grumman Newport News (NGNN) have joint-ventured to build the new Virginia-class submarine. Assembly of each boat (subs are called boats, not ships) alternates between shipyards. The lead boat, Virginia (SSN-774), and hence the name for this new class of fast-attack submarine, was built in Connecticut. She is in service now but was over budget and four months late when delivered to the Navy. The second VA-class is Texas (SSN-775), also now in service. Texas was built at the NGNN shipyard in Virginia at a cost of $2.8B, 25% over the Navy’s original budget. She was the first sub built by NGNN in 10 years and this is partly the reason for her late delivery – the shipyard needed to “re-tool” its production facilities and rebuild its submarine workforce. 

The third VA-class sub is Hawaii (SSN-776), built at a cost of $2.5B (only a 12% overrun). By contract, she had an 86-month construction schedule. Hawaii was delivered nine days early and is presently in service. The two shipyards have been under tremendous pressure by the Navy and Congress to reduce the cost of VA-class submarines to $2B (in FY2005 dollars). Both have responded as the cost and schedule of each sub has been less than the previous. The recently passed FY2009 budget includes one more sub at $2.1B. North Carolina, the fourth VA-class sub, was built in 83 months at a cost of $2.33B (only a 3.9% overrun) so the shipyards are making great progress toward the $2B goal. Along with reducing cost comes reducing construction time and it looks like the fifth VA-class, New Hampshire, will be completed in 72 months, six months ahead of its contract schedule. However, the Navy’s goal for construction time is 60 months.

So where is New Mexico (SSN 779), the sixth VA-class sub, in the overall scheme of things? She is presently two-thirds complete and her cost will be less than North Carolina. She is greatly benefiting from process improvements, cost savings and schedule reductions resulting from the work at NGNN on Texas and North Carolina. Her contract schedule is 75 months but it looks like her construction time will be more like 66 months, nine months early and paving the way for the Navy’s 60-month goal. 

The shipyards are now within $30M of the projected $2B target and New Mexico is now leading the way in reducing cost and schedule. She is the next submarine to be put in the water and when she is delivered to the Navy in August 2009, she will be the most advanced submarine in the world.

In late January, the Navy announced the names of the next three subs:  Missouri (SSN 780), California (SSN 781) and Mississippi (SSN-782). There is an interesting story about New Mexico and California’s state namesakes. When construction of our battleship, USS New Mexico (BB-40), was authorized by Congress in 1914, the ship was to bear the name California. But when she slid down the ways in 1917, she carried the official name USS New Mexico. California eventually got her battleship, BB-44. When our state was lobbying for submarine New Mexico, our competition was 7 or 8 states, including, you guessed it, California! So we have twice been victorious over California in getting our namesake first.