Navy’s newest sub joins the fleet today

[unhappycamper]

North Carolina
Virginia-class fast-attack sub joins fleet today


Navy’s newest sub joins the fleet today
Staff report
Posted : Saturday May 3, 2008 8:16:14 EDT

The Navy’s newest Virginia-class fast-attack submarine, the North Carolina, is to formally join the fleet today in a commissioning ceremony in its namesake state.

The North Carolina is the fourth ship in its class of advanced submarines, the first subs ever built without an optical periscope — they use a digital “photonics mast” instead — and the fourth ship to bear the name.

Navy Secretary Donald Winter is scheduled to give the commissioning ceremony’s main address in Wilmington, N.C. The ship’s sponsor is Linda Bowman, wife of retired Adm. Frank “Skip” Bowman, a former director of the Navy’s nuclear propulsion program; Linda Bowman will give the ship’s crew its traditional first command: “Man our ship and bring her to life!”

The North Carolina’s skipper is Capt. Mark Davis. The ship’s first home port is to be Naval Submarine Base New London, Conn.

The first North Carolina was a 74-gun ship-of-the-line that served from 1820 to 1836, according to a Navy announcement. The second North Carolina was a Tennessee-class armored cruiser that served from 1908 to 1921. The third North Carolina was the first of the Navy's modern battleships, serving from 1940 to 1947 and earning 12 battle stars for service during World War II.


Article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/05/navy_subcommissioning_050308w/



uhc comment: Meet the Virginia class submarine:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_class_submarine

~snip~

Construction and Controversy

The Virginias were intended, in part, as a slightly cheaper ($1.8 vs $2 billion) alternative to the Seawolf class, whose production run was stopped after just three vessels. To reduce costs, the Virginias use many "commercial-off-the-shelf" (or COTS) components, especially in their computers and data networks. In practice they actually cost about $2.3 billion (in fiscal year 2005 dollars) each, due in part to the lack of an economy of scale.

In hearings before both House of Representatives and Senate committees, the Congressional Research Service and expert witnesses testified that the current procurement plans of the Virginia class—one per year at present, accelerating to two per year beginning in 2012—resulted in high unit costs and (according to some of the witnesses and some of the committee chairmen)<2> an insufficient number of attack submarines. In a March 10, 2005 statement<3> to the House Armed Services Committee, Ronald O'Rourke of the CRS testified that, assuming the production rate remains as planned, "production economies of scale for submarines would continue to remain limited or poor."

The Virginia class is built through an industrial arrangement designed to keep both GD Electric Boat and Northrop Grumman Newport News (the only U.S. shipyards capable of building nuclear vessels) in the submarine-building business. Under the present arrangement, the Newport News facility builds the stern, habitability & machinery spaces, torpedo room, sail and bow, while Electric Boat builds the engine room and control room. The facilities alternate work on the reactor plant as well as the final assembly, test, outfit and delivery.

O’Rourke wrote<4> in 2004 that, "Compared to a one-yard strategy, approaches involving two yards may be more expensive but offer potential offsetting benefits." Among the claims of "offsetting benefits" that O'Rourke attributes to supporters of a two-facility construction arrangement is that it "would permit the United States to continue building submarines at one yard even if the other yard is rendered incapable of building submarines permanently or for a sustained period of time by a catastrophic event of some kind", including an attack.

In order to get the submarine's price down to $2 billion per sub in FY-05 dollars, the Navy instituted a cost-reduction program to shave off approximately $400 million in costs off the sub's price tag. The project was dubbed "2 for 4 in 12," referring to the Navy's desire to buy two subs for $4 billion in FY-12. Under pressure from Congress, the Navy opted to start buying two subs a year earlier, in FY-11, meaning that officials would not be able to get the $2 billion price tag before the service started buying two subs per year. However, program manager Dave Johnson said at a conference on March 19, 2008, that the program was only $30 million away from achieving the $2 billion price goal, and would reach that target on schedule.<1>



So the camper asks: How did that cost reduction go?
Answer: We're buying Virgina class submarines now for about $2,500,000,000 a pop. Way to go!