Electric Boat Recruits Engineers For New Sub

GROTON, Conn. — General Dynamics’ Electric Boat is in the hunt for more engineers as it gears up for the U.S. Navy’s replacement program for the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines — one of the service’s biggest shipbuilding programs for decades to come — President John Casey says.

For Fiscal 2012, the Navy anticipates spending $1 billion in research and development funding alone for the replacement program, Casey said during a Jan. 11 briefing on submarine programs to local leaders and the media. He estimates the entire program could be worth $100 billion.

The Navy is looking to replace 14 Ohio-class submarines, Casey notes, and the submarine-maker is now mapping a conceptual design for the next class of ballistic missile submarines. In recent meetings, he says, the Pentagon has been scrutinizing the requirements for the new class.

While the submarine-building contracts would likely be competitively bid, Casey says he doubts any other company — even its attack-submarine-building partner Northrop Grumman — can secure the work. Electric Boat built the existing Ohio-class fleet.

“We have every intention of building every one of those ships,” he says. “There’s no one else involved in designing and building that platform. It’s up to us to convince people we can do it at the right price.”

The first new ballistic missile submarine probably will not be authorized until 2019, he says, but the design work for such ships has to begin now.

For now, Electric Boat is focused on building Virginia-class attack submarines under a joint contract with Northrop’s Newport News, Va., shipyard.

In a recent report on the Virginia-class plan, Congressional Research Service Navy expert Ron O’Rourke notes the service may come up short on the number of attack submarines it needs in coming decades — possibly because of resources required to build Ohio-class replacements.

That doesn’t make sense, Casey said after the briefing. “Requirements dictate otherwise,” he notes, adding that the two submarine types have different requirements for different missions.

But he acknowledges that the current shipbuilding plan and focus on defense spending austerity will make it difficult to adequately fund both submarine programs in the long term.