Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $154m contract to provide US and UK Trident II Strategic Weapon System Shipboard Integration for the Columbia and Dreadnought class submarines.
According to a contract notification, this contract will provide the required navigation hardware and software design, testing, installation, and deliverables for the shipboard integration increment, along with the correlating fleet support services for the current fleet ballistic missile navigation subsystem.
Specifically, the contract will provide US and UK Inertial Navigation System and gyro modification and repair; Columbia navigation subsystem development and material procurements; development efforts for the modernisation program of shipboard integration program, including US and UK trainer maintenance and development; long lead material procurement for Ohio and Vanguard transducers, a portable data collection system, and long-range software modernisation activities.
“Work will be performed in Mitchel Field, New York (60 percent); Huntington Beach, California (26 percent); Clearwater, Florida (8 percent); and Cambridge, Massachusetts (6 percent), and is expected to have a completion date of Dec. 31, 2020.
Fiscal 2018 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $3,692,030; and United Kingdom funds in the amount of $20,321,571 will be obligated on this award. Subject to the availability of funding, fiscal 2018 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $67,801,542; fiscal 2018 research, development, test, and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $62,203,134; and United Kingdom funding in the amount of $385,587 will be obligated on this award.
No funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was a sole-source acquisition pursuant to 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1)&(4). Strategic Systems Program, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (N00030-18-C-0045).”
Will the Dreadnaught’s end up being a shortened Columbia class or will it be a BAE design. I’m asking because BAE had to bring Electric boat in from the US to sort out Astute and would be interested to see if any future US/UK attack sub will also be a shared design to try and cut down the R&D costs.
The current work share agreement still seems to be very heavily US skewed given the UK will be ordering a fifth of any trident subs but I would like to see some sort of balance as there is no way the UK could afford the R&D costs of developing an independent nuclear sub within a sensible budget even when it is splitting with the US it appears to be costing a fortune.