{"id":59549,"date":"2019-04-04T01:14:08","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T01:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/04\/04\/the-us-navy-seeking-savings-shakes-up-its-plans-for-more-lethal-attack-submarines\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:21:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:21:22","slug":"the-us-navy-seeking-savings-shakes-up-its-plans-for-more-lethal-attack-submarines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/naval\/2019\/04\/04\/the-us-navy-seeking-savings-shakes-up-its-plans-for-more-lethal-attack-submarines\/","title":{"rendered":"The US Navy, seeking savings, shakes up its plans for more lethal attack submarines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Navy is shaking up its plan for acquiring a new, much larger and more deadly version of its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/naval\/2019\/03\/19\/the-us-navy-facing-a-shortfall-aims-to-ink-an-enormous-attack-sub-contract-next-month\/\" target=\"_blank\">Virginia-class attack submarine<\/a> it aims to start buying this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The plan heading into this year was to start a contract on the 5th block of Virginias in October, beginning with an upgraded version of the block-four Virginia (a \u201cstraight-stick\u201d Virginia), then the second boat in 2019 would be the first boat with the added with 84-foot section known as the Virginia Payload Module, designed to expand the Virginia\u2019s Tomahawk strike missile load-out from 12 to 40.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The rest of the 10-ship buy was suppose to have the VPM, a move designed to offset the retirement of the four 154-Tomahawk-packing guided missile submarines in the mid-2020s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the Navy is looking for savings and things have changed heading into the 2020 budget cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instead of nine of 10 block-five Virginias being VPM boats, the Navy is proposing to Congress that they add a third Virginia in 2020, but the first boat will be another \u201cstraight-stick.\u201d Then in 2021, the Navy will return to buying two Virginias, but the first boat again will be a straight-stick and the second will have VPM. All the block five boats, VPM and otherwise, will have acoustic upgrades.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/naval\/2019\/03\/20\/late-is-the-new-normal-for-virginia-class-attack-boats\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/indiana.JPG_af5631.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Late is the new normal for Virginia-class attack boats<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">It\u2019s a problem the Navy will have to address as it prepares to buy the 10-ship Block V Virginia-class boats and begins construction on the vital Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The net effect will be one fewer Virginia Payload Module in the block-five buy. Instead of nine of 10 boats in the buy having VPM, the Navy is proposing that eight of 11 boats have the VPM, deferring the VPM presumably to Virginia Block Six, which is slated to begin in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The last-minute shuffling of the deck on Virginia, which includes pushing out VPM boats for which Congress had already appropriated advanced procurement money, shifts what was originally supposed to be the end of the straight-stick Virginias this year to buying one new straight stick a year for the next three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This has raised concerns among those in the submarine building industry because of the potential for disruptions in the workflow at the yards, which is carefully planned out years in advance, and could even bleed over into the new, strategically vital Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cJust like there is one rule in real estate (\u2018location, location, location\u2019), there is one rule in building ships: Predictability, predictability, predictability,\u201d said Dan Gour\u00e9, a former Bush Administration defense official and military analyst with the Arlington-based Lexington Institute. \u201cAnd they are messing with that now, for the first time in quite a while. And that makes no sense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The late changes have also affected the timeline for contract negotiations, and a source with knowledge of the details said a planned April contract date for block five is now unlikely. The date had already slipped from the beginning of the fiscal year in October, according to 2018 budget documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Virginia-class program has begun seeing creeping delays which the Navy acknowledged this year will likely be between four and seven months on each boat for the foreseeable future. The service says it has struggled to meet more aggressive construction timelines because of issues within the supplier base, which are causing delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A spokesman for the Navy\u2019s research, development and acquisition office said he wouldn\u2019t comment on precisely what savings would be achieved with the strategy, citing ongoing negotiations, but said the move of a matter of competing priorities within the budget. He also said the changes in the VPM schedule were not part of ongoing supplier challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTo support the Navy&#8217;s PB-20 request the decision to delay VPMs in FY-20 and 21 was based on competing requirements,\u201d said Capt. Danny Hernandez, RD&amp;A spokesman. \u201cThis was not based on any issues with shipbuilding or supply chain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"866\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/COLUMBIA-Image-Surfaced-002.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-35970\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/COLUMBIA-Image-Surfaced-002.jpg.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/COLUMBIA-Image-Surfaced-002.jpg.jpg?resize=300,217 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/COLUMBIA-Image-Surfaced-002.jpg.jpg?resize=768,554 768w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/COLUMBIA-Image-Surfaced-002.jpg.jpg?resize=1024,739 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A rendering of the future ballistic missile submarine Columbia, the first of a 12-ship class of SSBNs. (Navy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Added Wrinkle<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The third boat in 2020 also adds a wrinkle to the schedule. According to the Navy\u2019s justification books, the third boat will not start construction until 2023, which is the year before the service plans to buy a second Columbia-class boomer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That means the shipyards will be building three Virginias in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Virginia Payload Module strategy of continuing to buy straight-stick Virginias into 2021, ensures that General Dynamics Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls Newport News will be building both straight sticks and Virginia Payload Module Virginia-class boats and the Columbia class simultaneously through 2026 and beyond, according to Navy budget documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That will stress the yards and the supplier base, raising the risk that Columbia could run late, according to an industry source who spoke on background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe juxtaposition of Virginia VPM and Columbia will be an added challenge for the shipyards,\u201d the source said. \u201cVPM and Columbia will have no learning curves when both projects are started. As we saw with Seawolf and Virginia (and every other first of a class ship the Navy has ever built) first ships are late and over cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cUnfortunately, with the delay to the original program, Congress and the Navy have run the clock down, so there is no margin for Columbia to be late.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/naval\/2019\/03\/06\/the-navys-top-acquisition-priority-is-getting-a-new-boss\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"217\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/COLUMBIA-Image-Surfaced-002.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">The US Navy\u2019s top acquisition priority is getting a new boss<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Program Executive Office Columbia will be stood up this month.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The mounting challenges within the submarine building enterprise prompted RD&amp;A chief James Geurts to stand up a new program office specifically for the Columbia class, which was previously organized under Program Executive Office Submarines. Rear Adm. Scott Pappano is heading the new enterprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMy concern was with Columbia being our No. 1 acquisition priority and all the other submarine activities we have going on, do we have enough leadership bandwidth available to oversee and run all those programs simultaneously?\u201d Geurts said in an early March roundtable with reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAs I understand the challenges going forward, [I wanted to] get PEO-level support to that program as it starts ramping up. And I didn\u2019t want to wait for a crisis for that to occur; I wanted to make sure we are proactively working the program.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Navy is cutting back on the number of Virginia Payload Modules it plans to buy, and is changing the build strategy for the ships over the next three years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":83405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":16,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"7":{"categories":["your-navy","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","middle-column","home"],"primary_category":"your-navy"}}},"categories":[160,16,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3361],"class_list":["post-59549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-naval","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"VGC2LNGPYFAGBFZDQ3UVIKN62I","arc_canonical_url":"\/naval\/2019\/04\/04\/the-us-navy-seeking-savings-shakes-up-its-plans-for-more-lethal-attack-submarines\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The US Navy, seeking savings, shakes up its plans for more lethal attack submarines - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The U.S. Navy is cutting back on the number of Virginia Payload Modules it plans to buy, and is changing the build strategy for the ships over the next three years.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The US Navy, seeking savings, shakes up its plans for more lethal attack submarines\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The U.S. Navy is cutting back on the number of Virginia Payload Modules it plans to buy, and is changing the build strategy for the ships over the next three years.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/naval\/2019\/04\/04\/the-us-navy-seeking-savings-shakes-up-its-plans-for-more-lethal-attack-submarines\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Defense News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-04T01:14:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T00:21:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David B. 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Larter\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Article\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/naval\\\/2019\\\/04\\\/04\\\/the-us-navy-seeking-savings-shakes-up-its-plans-for-more-lethal-attack-submarines\\\/#article\",\n\t            \"isPartOf\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/naval\\\/2019\\\/04\\\/04\\\/the-us-navy-seeking-savings-shakes-up-its-plans-for-more-lethal-attack-submarines\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"author\": {\n\t                \"name\": \"migration\",\n\t                \"@id\": 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