President Donald Trump, who recently vowed to cut the cost of new Navy submarines, has various tools at his disposal that could help him achieve his goal, according to a naval expert.
One such tool would be using multi-year procurement contracts for the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, which is currently in development, said Ronald O’Rourke, an analyst at the Congressional Research Service. Multi-year contracts, which give programs more stability than annual contracts, are already reducing the cost of Virginia-class attack submarines by about 10 percent.
Another option would be to raise the Virginia-class procurement rate from two submarines a year to three, which would increase economies of scale and trim the unit procurement cost by at least a few percentage points, O’Rourke told Defense Daily. The fiscal year 2017 unfunded priorities list that the Navy sent to Congress last month proposes spending $255 million at a General Dynamics [GD] Electric Boat plant in Quonset Point, R.I., to “facilitate construction” of three submarines a year.
Cost savings also might be achieved by ordering common components for both submarine classes at the same time. The Navy has indicated that it is exploring this option, O’Rourke said.
Yet another approach would be to continue building Virginia-class submarines in their current configuration instead of outfitting them with the new Virginia Payload Module (VPM), which is expected to add $305 million to each submarine’s cost. The VPM is intended to compensate for the strike capability that will be lost when the Navy’s four Ohio-class cruise missile submarines are retired in the late 2020s.
“There may also be other options for reducing the capability of Virginia-class boats,” O’Rourke said. “Reducing the capability of Virginia-class boats would reduce the capability of the submarine force for carrying out various missions.”
Trump told Fox News Jan. 27 that the Navy needs more submarines but that he plans to slash their costs (Defense Daily, Jan. 27, 2017). “We’re going to build new submarines but the price is too high, so I’m cutting the prices way down,” Trump told the cable television channel. He did not quantify the reductions or say how he would achieve them.