A bonus...USS Minnesota on sea trials.
http://www.stripes.com/news/navy/uss-north-dakota-in-home-stretch-1.250414
The North Dakota is the first in the third block of eight Virginia-class submarines the Navy is ordering. It is the first to have a redesigned bow with a new sonar array and two larger payload tubes instead of 12 individual vertical launch missile tubes. The design was simplified to save about $100 million per submarine, said Kurt A. Hesch, EB's vice president who manages the Virginia-class program.
Historically, he said, EB has changed submarine designs to add capabilities, rather than to cut costs, and the first submarine with changes would take longer to build and would cost more. The challenge with the North Dakota, Hesch said, was "breaking that paradigm."
"One of the reasons this boat is so important for us to be where we are, to be a little better than expected, is because that sets up the rest of block," he said.
The Navy began buying two submarines a year in 2011 on the condition that EB would reduce the cost, so two boats could be purchased in fiscal 2012 for a total cost of $4 billion in fiscal 2005 dollars, which is often referred to as "2 for 4 in 12." The target cost for each submarine translates is about $2.6 billion for a boat procured in the 2012 fiscal year.
EB previously delivered the USS Mississippi to the Navy in 62 months. Its shipbuilding teammate, Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia, built the USS Minnesota in 63 months.
Suppose to be Block III not flight III, got confused with Arleigh Burke boats.
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