Admiral Says Reducing Cost Of U.S. Submarines Is 'Critical'

The chief of naval operations toured the Electric Boat shipyard Thursday to check on the company's efforts to lower the cost of Virginia-class submarines.

The third of the class, USS Hawaii (SSN 776), was commissioned in May. It was a $2.5 billion project, and the Navy has repeatedly said it wants the price for future submarines pared to $2 billion — in 2005 dollars.

“One of the things that has happened here at Electric Boat, and is happening within our shipbuilding industry, is the drive to bring costs down, because the ships we buy are very expensive,” Adm. Gary Roughead said.

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