General Dynamics Electric Boat, a business unit of General Dynamics (Booth 623) has been awarded a $1 billion contract modification allowing Electric Boat to buy long-lead-time materials for Virginia-class Block VI submarines.

The contract award says work is expected to be completed by September 2035 with the largest section of the work, 30%, being performed in Sunnyvale, California.

“This contract modification drives continuation of the crucial demand signal that the submarine industrial base needs to invest in the capacity and materials required to increase production volume,” said Mark Rayha, president of General Dynamics Electric Boat. “Consistent funding for the supply base is essential to achieve the high-rate production the Navy requires of the entire submarine enterprise.”

Virginia-class submarines are designed from the keel up for the full range of 21st-century mission requirements, including anti-submarine and surface ship warfare and special operations support. General Dynamics Electric Boat is the prime contractor and lead design yard for the Virginia class and constructs them in a teaming arrangement with HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia.

The production rate of Virginia-class submarines has been slower than expected, but the Navy and industry are working to increase the rate even beyond the planned buy of two submarines per year. The subs are also a crucial part of the AUKUS agreement to support Australia in acquiring and building nuclear-powered submarines.

Hundreds of energetic students packed into the RiverView Ballroom at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center for the seventh year of the STEM Expo to kick off Sea-Air-Space 2025.

The event featured more than three dozen exhibits to help interest students in grades five through 12 to pursue a STEM career. It also threw in a little fun from presentations by Mad Science, which delivers innovative, educational science demonstrations aimed at children, and the National Marine Mammal Foundation, which showcased the Navy’s marine mammal program and let students get up close with an inflatable dolphin stand-in.

The STEM Expo drew not only students but high-level attendees from the sea service, including Chief of Naval Research Rear Admiral Kurt J. Rothenhaus.

“ONR is honored to be a part of this STEM event to get the word out to young folks around the country to think about a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” Rothenhaus said. “I’m excited to see the many industry partners out this afternoon as well as our Naval Research Lab, all here to inspire the next generation to help build the future.”

HII was the Champion Sponsor for the event and CACI sponsored the science stations.

Hands-on Fun

“In my section, we’re over there making a mess. We’re trying to teach them some buoyancy” by having students build small boats that carried weight, said HII’s William Abraira, a structural engineer at Newport News Shipbuilding, who works on submarine pressure hulls.

“We’re trying to explain water displacement to them but fun gets in the way and it quickly turns into a competition of who can hold the most marbles,” he said. “But it’s super important, it’s one of those basic principles in shipbuilding, and it just gets kids really excited.”

Perry Haymon, with HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding, was helping hand out brightly colored plastic “hard hats” to students to emphasize the importance of safety.

“I work in research and development. So, I see the importance of those new things, those new technologies. To see young minds come in and get interested in what we do at the shipyard, as well as all of HII … is very important to us. We enjoy coming and seeing the faces of young people,” he said. “There’s a lot of energy here, from the people coming in, just getting hard hats, and also seeing the other events that we’ve got going on, from welding to virtual reality, and also building a boat to see how much weight you can actually carry.”

CACI had set up a booth where children could design their own hovercraft from common materials and test them in a wind tunnel.

“It’s been such a fun experience getting to watch them do it,” said Sidney Finkenbinder, a media relations specialist at CACI. “Make one, test it out, see what they can change and make it better. That’s what it’s all about, getting to learn new things and try out new activities … getting to see their faces when it works is just so much fun.”

Hundreds of energetic students packed into the RiverView Ballroom at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center for the seventh year of the STEM Expo to kick off Sea-Air-Space 2025.

The event featured more than three dozen exhibits to help interest students in grades five through 12 to pursue a STEM career. It also threw in a little fun from presentations by Mad Science, which delivers innovative, educational science demonstrations aimed at children, and the National Marine Mammal Foundation, which showcased the Navy’s marine mammal program and let students get up close with an inflatable dolphin stand-in.

The STEM Expo drew not only students but high-level attendees from the sea service, including Chief of Naval Research Rear Admiral Kurt J. Rothenhaus.

“ONR is honored to be a part of this STEM event to get the word out to young folks around the country to think about a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” Rothenhaus said. “I’m excited to see the many industry partners out this afternoon as well as our Naval Research Lab, all here to inspire the next generation to help build the future.”

HII was the Champion Sponsor for the event and CACI sponsored the science stations.

Hands-on Fun

“In my section, we’re over there making a mess. We’re trying to teach them some buoyancy” by having students build small boats that carried weight, said HII’s William Abraira, a structural engineer at Newport News Shipbuilding, who works on submarine pressure hulls.

“We’re trying to explain water displacement to them but fun gets in the way and it quickly turns into a competition of who can hold the most marbles,” he said. “But it’s super important, it’s one of those basic principles in shipbuilding, and it just gets kids really excited.”

Perry Haymon, with HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding, was helping hand out brightly colored plastic “hard hats” to students to emphasize the importance of safety.

“I work in research and development. So, I see the importance of those new things, those new technologies. To see young minds come in and get interested in what we do at the shipyard, as well as all of HII … is very important to us. We enjoy coming and seeing the faces of young people,” he said. “There’s a lot of energy here, from the people coming in, just getting hard hats, and also seeing the other events that we’ve got going on, from welding to virtual reality, and also building a boat to see how much weight you can actually carry.”

CACI had set up a booth where children could design their own hovercraft from common materials and test them in a wind tunnel.

“It’s been such a fun experience getting to watch them do it,” said Sidney Finkenbinder, a media relations specialist at CACI. “Make one, test it out, see what they can change and make it better. That’s what it’s all about, getting to learn new things and try out new activities … getting to see their faces when it works is just so much fun.”

BAE Systems (Booth 613) is developing a hypervelocity projectile, or HVP, for the U.S. Navy’s Mark 45 5-inch gun as a counter-unmanned aerial system option to engage aerial targets.

The Mk45 is the gun installed on the Navy’s Arleigh Burke guided-missile destroyers (DDGs) and Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers, as well as on some warships of 11 other navies. More than 220 Mk45 guns are in service worldwide.

“We’re always looking to improve performance of the gun and the gun weapon system in general and the hypervelocity projectile is the next iteration of various improvements that we’ve done over the years,” Tate Westbrook, BAE Systems’ director of Naval Guns and Missile Launchers, said during an interview with Seapower.

The Mk45 gun was among the weapons the Navy used to successfully engage Houthi drones and cruise missiles during action in the Red Sea. In a speech at January’s Surface Navy Association Convention, Vice Admiral Brendan McLane, commander of Naval Surface Forces, said as one example the DDG USS O’Kane “protected a merchant convoy against hostile UAVs and employed their 5-inch gun to successfully defeat the threat.”

“We are currently under contract for a developmental effort with the Navy,” said Westbrook, who as a Navy captain commanded a DDG, a squadron of DDGs and a fleet task force. “I can’t get into the specifics on how many projectiles we’re building for them or how many ships it’s installed on or going to be installed. At this point, it’s very much a cooperative development program between us and Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren.”

Westbrook described the HVP round as fitted with a sabot, a casing that enables the round to fit in a gun barrel of a larger diameter. BAE Systems developed such a round with sabot for its Rail Gun, an electromagnetic gun developed in the 2000s but cancelled in 2016. The HVP has since been improved and adapted for systems in development. BAE Systems is under contract with the U.S. Army for an HVP with a 155-millimeter sabot for its Multi-Domain Artillery Cannon System, which includes a dedicated radar, vehicles and cannon, as well as an HVP.

“The projectile itself is almost 100% the same between the Army version with a 155-millimeter sabot and the U.S. Navy version which is a 5-inch sabot or 127-millimeter, but the projectile that proceeds on the way to the intercept of the target is almost 100% the same between an Army version and a Navy version,” Westbrook said.

Westbrook was not at liberty to discuss the HVP’s fuzing but noted “the importance of what a gamechanger this program is going to be. The Navy has very much limited performance discussions of how the fire control system actually works and what’s happening on board, but what I can tell you is that it’s got an onboard processor inside the projectile. It has four control fins and can maneuver to the target. The ship is providing information to the round in flight, and it does onboard calculations to maneuver to inner subject.”

When the round is fired, the sabot peels away in four pieces from the projectile.

Westbrook said the Mk45 itself needs only minor modification to ensure that the gun “basically communicates with the round and recognizes it [and] provides initial data to the projectile before it’s fired.”

He said additional tests of the HVP are planned for on land and at sea.

The Partner2Win program is a collaboration between the company’s three shipyards in Jacksonville, Florida; Norfolk, Virginia; and San Diego, as well as a network of naval and commercial ship repair suppliers across the country.

The top ship repair supplier awards went to four companies:

• 2024 Subcontractor of the year: Allied United, a security and facility services company, provides security at all three BAE Systems U.S. shipyards, which engage Navy and commercial vessels that require the highest level of security and confidentiality. Last year, the company helped to deliver expanded services more efficiently.
• 2024 Small Business supplier of the year: AMP United, a full-scale marine preservation company, successfully supported 14 major ship repair projects across the three shipyards last year. About 40 percent of the Ship Repair business’ sales in 2024 were conducted with small businesses like AMP United.
• 2024 Maintenance, Repair and Operations supplier of the year: Airgas USA, a leading supplier of industrial gases and safety products, provided onsite support for welding rods and supplies to all three shipyards. Its work last year to track weld rods ensures that the company remains in compliance with government requirements.
• 2024 Safety, Health and Environmental supplier of the year: The 3M Company, a multinational conglomerate that operates in industrial, safety, consumer goods, and technology industries, hosted numerous demonstrations of safer technologies and techniques that helped increase shipyard safety.

A total of 48 gold, 27 silver, and 12 bronze awards were presented. The following companies were also recognized with Allied, AMP, Airgas, and 3M as stand-out award winners:

• BAE Systems Jacksonville Ship Repair’s Small Business of the Year – TCI Mechanical of Atlantic Beach, Florida;
• BAE Systems Jacksonville Ship Repair’s Subcontractor of the Year – Advanced Marine Preservation, LLC of Jacksonville, Florida;
• BAE Systems Norfolk Ship Repair’s Small Business of the Year – AMP United of Dover, New Hampshire;
• BAE Systems Norfolk Ship Repair’s Subcontractor of the Year – Standard Calibration of Chesapeake, Virginia;
• BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair’s Small Business of the Year – Standard Ship Repair of National City, California; and
• BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair’s Subcontractor of the Year – California Marine Cleaning of Pompano Beach, Florida.

BAE Systems provides ship repair, maintenance and modernization services to the U.S. Navy’s fleet of combatant ships in their homeports; refit and hauling services for commercial and privately held vessels; and fabrication services for the submarine industrial base.

CMS will reprise its third annual “Gaming to Win” event on 7 April, this year for six hours (9:00am to 3:00pm,) in the Riverview Ballroom. Hear senior Navy and Marine education leaders from National Defense University, the Naval Postgraduate School, and Marine Corps University discuss the role of gaming in their institutions. Flag panel members include Vice Admiral Peter Garvin, USN, President of National Defense University, Lieutenant General Lori Reynolds, USMC (ret,) from the Department of the Navy CIO USMC Information Chair at Naval Postgraduate School, and Brigadier General Matthew Tracy, USMC, Commanding General, Education Command and President, Marine Corps University. See multiple board and electronic wargames, play the giant battleship game that will be onsite and/or watch flag officers play a round. Finally, the noted Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) game designer and player Sebastian Bae will host a panel of fellow wargame designers and experts on the hottest trends in the growing field of war game design and play.

CMS again presents familiar events including its Tuesday 8 April breakfast where Admiral Foggo will host and converse with Fleet Forces Commander Admiral Daryl Caudle, acting Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Kevin Lunday, Fincantieri Marinette Marine President Vice Admiral Rick Hunt, USN (ret,) as well as President of General Dynamic Electric Boat Mark Rayha and Executive Vice President of Huntington Ingalls Newport News shipbuilding Kai Wilkinson. CMS breakfast will cover everything from shipbuilding to ship operations, from the Red Sea to the Arctic and more.

CMS will host a launch of its first major publication Returning from Ebb Tide, Renewing the United States Commercial Maritime Enterprise on 8 April with the book’s editor, CMS Navalist Dr. Steve Wills, and many of the chapter authors including Vice Admiral Dee Mewbourne, U.S. Navy (ret) PhD and former Deputy U.S. TRANSCOM, RAND Corporation senior analyst Dr. Brad Martin, Core Power U.K small nuclear reactor analyst Sanjana Shasikumar, Defense Priorities analyst Dr. Sabrina Croteau, and Merchant Mariner advocate and expert John Konrad for a conversation on their chapters, and later book signing event.

Admiral Foggo will host an 8 April panel on the revitalization of the U.S. maritime industrial base (MIB,) with noted experts from the naval, business and analytical fields to include Commander, Naval Submarine Forces; Commander, Submarine Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet; Vice Admiral Rob Gaucher, the Co-Founder and CEO at Blueforge Alliance Rob Gorham, Managing Senior Partner for Government Consulting Services at Ernst and Young Chris Pontrelli, CEO at Orion Talent Greg Summers, and senior naval analyst at Congressional Budget Office Dr. Eric Labs. This session will be the culmination of a long-running CMS MIB Working Group and will be a most informative session on the intersection of government, naval and private industry attempts to revitalize the U.S. maritime enterprise.

Finally, the CMS anchor event on 9 April will be a live recording of the CMS podcast Maritime Nation where Admiral Foggo will host newly-minted Senior Counselor, Maritime and Industrial Capacity Directorate, at National Security Council Dr. Jerry Hendrix, and Director, Maritime Strategy and Policy at National Security Council Mr. Dan Pedrotty for a conversation on what the Trump administration is planning with regard to shipbuilding in the United States. It’s the perfect event with which to round out the Sea Air Space experience.

Please join CMS and the Navy League for these and many other panel and networking events at Sea Air Space 2025. Register for Sea Air Space here: https://seaairspace2025.completereg.com/Index.aspx