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General Dynamics Electric Boat

General Dynamics Electric Boat (GDEB) is a subsidiary of General Dynamics Corporation. It has been the primary builder of submarines for the United States Navy for more than 100 years. The company's main facilities are a shipyard in Groton, Connecticut, a hull-fabrication and outfitting facility in Quonset Point, Rhode Island, and a design and engineering facility in New London, Connecticut.

History

The company was founded in 1899 by Isaac Rice as the Electric Boat Company to build John Philip Holland's submersible ship designs, which were developed at Lewis Nixon's Crescent Shipyard in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Holland VI was the first submarine that this shipyard built, which became USS Holland when it was commissioned into the United States Navy on April 11, 1900—the first submarine to be officially commissioned. The success of Holland VI created a demand for follow-up models (A class or Plunger class) that began with the prototype submersible Fulton built at Electric Boat. Some foreign navies were interested in Holland's latest submarine designs, and so purchased the rights to build them under licensing contracts through the company; these included the United Kingdom's Royal Navy, the Imperial Japanese Navy, the Imperial Russian Navy, and the Royal Netherlands Navy.

From 1907 to 1925 Electric Boat designed submarines for the US Navy and subcontracted their construction to the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts and other shipyards. During this era, the company designed submarines of the B, C, D, E, K, L, M, N, AA-1, O, R, and S classes.

During the World War I era, the company and its subsidiaries (notably the Electric Launch Company, or Elco) built 85 submarines via subcontractors and 722 submarine chasers for the US Navy, and 580 80-foot motor launches for the British Royal Navy.

Interwar

After the war, the US Navy did not order another submarine from Electric Boat until Cuttlefish in 1931. Cuttlefish was the first submarine built at EB's plant in Groton, Connecticut which has been its primary submarine manufacturing facility ever since. EB was the lead yard for several classes of submarines (Perch, Salmon, Sargo, Tambor, Gar, Mackerel and Gato) prior to World War II.

Starting in the early 1930s, EB was one of only two major US submarine manufacturers (the other being the Portsmouth Navy Yard) until the late 1950s. Three other yards (Manitowoc, Mare Island, and Cramp) produced submarines only during World War II. Several other yards (New York Shipbuilding, Ingalls and Fore River Shipyard) as well as Mare Island built submarines in the late 1950s through the early 1970s. Since 1974, only Electric Boat and Newport News have built submarines for the US Navy.

World War II

During World War II, the company built 74 submarines at the Groton plant, while Elco built nearly 400 PT boats, and Electric Boat ranked 77th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts.

Post war

In 1952, Electric Boat was reorganized as General Dynamics Corporation under John Jay Hopkins. General Dynamics acquired Convair the following year, and the holding company assumed the "General Dynamics" name while the submarine-building operation reverted to the "Electric Boat" name.

Electric Boat built the first nuclear submarine, USS Nautilus, which was launched in January 1954, and the first ballistic missile submarine, USS George Washington, in 1959. Submarines of the Ohio, Los Angeles, Seawolf, and Virginia classes were also constructed by Electric Boat. In 2002, EB conducted preservation work on Nautilus, preparing her for her berth at the US Navy Submarine Force Library and Museum in Groton, Connecticut where she now resides as a museum. Electric Boat's first submarine, Holland, was scrapped in 1932.

From the mid-1970s to the present, EB has been one of only two submarine manufacturers in the United States, with the other being Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia.

In April 2014, EB was awarded a $17.8 billion contract with Naval Sea Systems Command for ten Block IV Virginia-class attack submarines. It is the largest single shipbuilding contract in the service's history. The company builds the submarine along with Huntington Ingalls Industries Newport News Shipbuilding. The boats of Block IV Virginias will cost less than Block III, as Electric Boat reduced the cost of the submarines by increasing efficiency in the construction process. The submarines of this type will build on the improvements to allow them to spend less time in the yard. In 2019 EB received a contract with Naval Sea Systems Command to begin procuring materials for the Block V variant of the Virginia-class. This upgrade brings the Virginia payload module, which enables Tomahawk missiles to be carried by the submarine.

1980s structural welding defect cover up

In the early 1980s, structural welding defects had been covered up by falsified inspection records, and this led to significant delays and expenses in the delivery of several submarines being built at Electric Boat's shipyard. In some cases, the repairs resulted in practically dismantling and then rebuilding what had been a nearly completed submarine. The yard tried to pass the vast cost overruns directly on to the Navy, while Admiral Hyman G. Rickover demanded from Electric Boat's general manager P. Takis Veliotis that the yard make good on its "shoddy" workmanship.

The Navy eventually settled with General Dynamics in 1981, paying out $634 million of $843 million in Los Angeles-class submarines cost-overrun and reconstruction claims. As it happened, the Navy was also the yard's insurer, liable to compensate the company for losses and other mishaps. The concept of reimbursing General Dynamics under these conditions was initially considered "preposterous," in the words of Secretary of the Navy John Lehman, but the eventual legal basis of General Dynamics' reimbursement claims to the Navy for the company's poor workmanship included insurance compensation. Veliotis was subsequently indicted by a federal grand jury under racketeering and fraud charges in 1983 for demanding $1.3 million in kickbacks from a subcontractor. He escaped into exile and a life of luxury in his native Greece, where he remained a fugitive from justice.

Submarines built

This is a list of submarines built at Electric Boat's Groton plant and does not include earlier submarines built by other companies under contract to Electric Boat.

General Dynamics Electric Boat built every unique US Navy submarine after 1931, excepting Halibut (SSGN-587) and the purely experimental Albacore (AGSS-569) and Dolphin (AGSS-555).

General Dynamics Electric Boat built at least one unit of every class of serially-produced US Navy submarines after 1931, excepting the Grayback and Barbel classes.

Cachalot class

EB built 1 of 2 total in the class

Porpoise class

5 of 10 total in class

Salmon class

3 of 6 total in class

Sargo class

5 of 10 total in class

Tambor class

6 of 12 total in class, all diesel-electric

Mackerel class

1 of 2 total in class

Gato class

41 of 77 total in class, all diesel-electric

Balao class

40 of 120 total in class, all diesel-electric

Tench class

1 of 29 total in class

Barracuda class

1 of 3 total in class

Tang class

3 of 6 total in class

Nautilus class

Unique submarine

T-1 class

1 of 2 total in class

Darter class

Unique submarine

Seawolf class

Unique submarine

Skate class

1 of 4 total in class

Skipjack class

2 of 6 total in class

Triton class

Unique submarine

Thresher/Permit class

3 of 14 total in class

Tullibee class

Unique submarine

George Washington class

2 of 5 total in class

Ethan Allen class

2 of 5 total in class

Lafayette class

4 of 9 total in class

James Madison class

3 of 10 total in class

Sturgeon class

11 of 37 total in class

Benjamin Franklin class

6 of 12 total in class

Narwhal class

Unique submarine

Glenard P. Lipscomb class

Unique submarine

Los Angeles class

33 of 62 total in class

Ohio class

18 of 18 total in class

Seawolf class

3 of 3 total in class

Virginia class

Columbia class

References

Gardiner, Robert, Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921 Conway Maritime Press, 1985. ISBN 0-85177-245-5.

External links

General Dynamics Electric Boat web site
Electric Boat information page on General Dynamics Corporation site Archived 5 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine

Text submitted to CC-BY-SA license. Source: General Dynamics Electric Boat by Wikipedia (Historical)