"General Dynamics Electric Boat Corporation [of] Groton, Connecticut is awarded an $869,043,785 ... contract", the release said on Monday. "This modification includes continued design completion, engineering work, affordability studies and design support efforts for the Columbia Class fleet ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs)".
The main work on the contract will be performed in Groton in the US state of Connecticut, at Quonset Point in Rhode Island, and in Newport News in Virginia, the Defence Department read.
According to the Pentagon, the contract also covers "submarine industrial base development and expansion efforts as part of the integrated enterprise plan and multi-program material procurement supporting Columbia SSBNs and the nuclear shipbuilding enterprise".
The US nuclear shipbuilding industrial base continues to ramp up production capacity to support the increased demand associated with the Navy’s Force Structure Assessment developing improved capacity at sub-tier vendors to reduce risks of delays and bottlenecks, the release added.
The Columbia class program is a program to design and build a class of 12 new ballistic missile submarines to replace the Navy’s current force of 14 aging Ohio-class missile submarines.