The U.S. Navy has contracted General Dynamics’ Electric Boat division in Groton to continue design efforts to lower the cost of Virginia-class submarines, UPI.com reports.
The contract, a modification of an earlier award, is worth $60 million.
Under the terms of the contract modification, General Dynamics Electric Boat will continue to develop and implement cost-reduction design changes, an effort called Design for Affordability. The work will enable the Virginia-class program to reduce acquisition costs by 20 percent in time for the FY-12 submarines.
The most significant design change implemented in Block III of the program is the modification of the submarine’s bow, replacing the sonar sphere with a large aperture bow array and the 12 vertical-launch missile tubes with two Virginia Payload Tubes, each carrying six missiles.
The company said this redesign will save more than $40 million per ship.
The initial contract, called Block III, was awarded by the Navy in 2008 and calls for the procurement of eight submarines through FY 13. It has a potential value of $14 billion.
