BREAKING: The Navy Just Placed Its Biggest Submarine Order Ever | $76.6 billion
- NSCF
- Jul 29
- 2 min read
On July 29, the Navy awarded $76.6 billion to the two shipyards that build America's submarines, General Dynamics Electric Boat and HII's Newport News Shipbuilding. According to USNI News, it is the largest shipbuilding award in modern American history, and it lands after nearly three years of negotiation and delay.
For anyone who follows the boats we support, this is the pipeline that keeps the fleet at sea.
What the award funds
The $76.6 billion splits three ways:
$42.1 billion for nine Block VI Virginia-class attack submarines, plus long-lead material for a tenth. The Virginia-class is the same line as USS North Carolina (SSN 777). These Block VI boats carry the Virginia Payload Module, which expands their capacity for Tomahawk missiles and the Navy's future hypersonic long-range strike weapon.
$29.5 billion for five Build II Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines. The Columbia-class recapitalizes the sea-based leg of the nuclear triad, the most survivable part of the country's nuclear deterrent.
$5 billion aimed directly at the shipbuilding workforce.
That last number is the one worth sitting with.
Why the Contract Took Nearly Three Years
The holdup was not the design or the mission. It was cost, and the biggest driver behind rising cost is people. Experienced shipbuilders retired during the pandemic and were not replaced fast enough. The yards now compete for workers with industries like food service that pay close to shipyard wages for far less demanding work.
Building a nuclear submarine takes welders, machinists, electricians, and engineers who train for years. You cannot surge that kind of talent overnight, and the $5 billion carve-out is the Navy's acknowledgment that the boats do not exist without the benches to build them.
This is the gap we work on
The challenge behind that $5 billion is the one NCSF talks about constantly. Industry estimates put the submarine and shipbuilding workforce shortfall near a quarter million skilled workers over the coming years. Contracts like this one create the demand. The workforce has to be there to meet it.
That is the whole idea behind the STEM Education and Workforce Innovation Center: build the pipeline of skilled people the fleet needs before the shortage forces the Navy to choose between schedule and capability.
What This Means for America’s Defense Future
The award secures work at both yards and thousands of supplier companies into the late 2030s. The first Build II Columbia will be Groton (SSBN-828). First-in-class District of Columbia is still set to deliver by March 2029. The commitment also underpins AUKUS, the agreement that will send three in-service Virginia-class boats to Australia in the 2030s.
For the crews and families we serve, steady contracts mean steady boats, steady maintenance, and a clearer future for the yards that keep them running.
The order is placed. Now the country has to build the workforce to fill it.
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