Fairbanks Morse Defense (FMD) announced on Tuesday, October 27, that it had been awarded a $99.09 million contract by the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) to overhaul the emergency diesel generators (EDG) on six US Navy nuclear submarines.
The follow-on, sole-source contract covers repairs, parts and labour through 2030 for both SSNs, the attack-submarine type, and SSBNs, the ballistic-missile-submarine type. FMD said it expects to carry out more than one EDG overhaul in every year of the contract.
The work forms part of a navy strategy in which original equipment manufacturers (OEM) overhaul critical systems to keep Ohio- and Los Angeles-class submarines in service for up to 14 additional years.
FMD said it had previously finished EDG overhauls on two vessels of the Ohio class and one Los Angeles-class vessel under an earlier NAVSEA contract.
The company will use robotic welding, which it said has reduced the time spent on manual welding by as much as two-thirds.
It will also use a maintenance approach developed with the US Navy that pre-stages OEM parts for routine overhauls, aiming to cut depot maintenance from months to weeks. FMD previously trialled the approach on four US Navy dock landing ships.
"Because the timely delivery of critical components dictates fleet availability, we are moving quickly to scale our capabilities," said Keith Haasl, FMD President of Services and Technology.
FMD linked the contract to a potential submarine shortfall after 2029. It attributed the shortfall to scheduled decommissionings and to delays in Columbia- and Virginia-class construction.
The navy inactivated the Los Angeles-class Alexandria in June. In March, it awarded General Dynamics Electric Boat a $15 billion contract modification to accelerate construction of both replacement classes.