(STL.News) The U.S. Navy has placed a $9.4 billion order with General Dynamics Electric Boat for the first Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine.
The deal includes funds to finish construction of the future USS Columbia and buy materials for the second one – the future USS Wisconsin.
Rear Adm. Scott Pappano, program executive officer for Columbia, said during a briefing with reporters that the Columbia-class “will be the largest, most advanced, most capable submarine ever produced by this nation,”
The U.S Navy and Electric Boat have been building prototypes of unique parts of the new submarine for a number of years.
Pappano said. “We’ve done quite a bit of early advanced procurement and construction to shake out the defense industrial base,”
The Columbia-class is being built by General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut and U.S. shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries Newport News Shipbuilding division in Virgi