Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) is the nation’s sole-industrial designer, builder, and refueler of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and one of the only two shipyards capable of designing and building nuclear-powered submarines.
Despite government spending cutbacks and being smack dab in the middle of the debt-ceiling crisis (2013), Congress gave HII the budgetary go-ahead to resume production of the $2.5 billion Virginia-class submarines.
“As a team, Newport News Shipbuilding and Electric Boat have been aggressive in identifying cost-reduction opportunities and construction efficiencies that both enabled the authorization of two submarines per year and will support their continued cost-effective and timely delivery to our Navy customer,” Jim Hughes, NNS’ vice president, Submarines and Fleet Support said.
Dubbed the Supplemental Modular Outfitting Facility, or SMOF, the structure is a smaller cousin to the adjacent 200,000-square-foot Modular Outfitting Facility, where subs are built and assembled today. The building includes 65,000 square feet of construction space and a 9,000 square-foot office tower.