Hi everyone; it’s Kevin. Today is Monday, July 18. This podcast is a business update covering the progress we’ve made since my last update back in April.
This past week we underwent our yearly evaluation by Naval Reactors, and I’d like to thank everyone involved for the effort to get us ready for this assessment. I especially appreciated the Naval Reactor’s team’s commitment to helping EB improve and to the healthy dialogue that took place between everyone involved. As we all know, evaluations like this give us an outside set of eyes and a perspective that always provides an opportunity to learn and improve, and you’ll hear more about our improvement opportunities from your leadership team in the coming weeks.
On June 4, we laid the keel for District of Columbia, the lead ship of the Columbia class, with Quad Pack One, the ship’s first horizontal hull cylinder, as the backdrop. The event was attended by Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro and key Navy leadership, our Connecticut and Rhode Island congressional delegations, ship sponsor Eleanor Holmes Norton and nearly 2,000 Electric Boat employees and their families. It was a great day to mark the ceremonial birth of the ship and the fifteen years of progress we’ve made towards delivering our nation’s highest-priority defense acquisition. It was great to see many of you there as well.
We continue to make steady progress on District of Columbia. We recently delivered four hull valves from Groton to Quonset Point for installation. The engine room forward middle level deck has been delivered to Blast/Paint, and the third quad pack of missile tubes is now in the F-fixture to be joined to the pressure hull. All pre-installation motor testing has been completed, and the assembly is shipping to Quonset Point later this month.
I want to give a special thank you to the combined Engineering and Planning team for their efforts in completing Columbia work instructions. Together the team is continuing to gain momentum in training our people and improving our processes as we look to further increase work instruction throughput. This effort is absolutely crucial to sustaining our progress on Columbia.
On the Subsea and Seabed Warfare program, the Design and Engineering team completed over 80 arrangements in the month of June. This is the highest output in many years and a great achievement on this very important and complex program.
Elsewhere, on the Virginia program, we’ve made good progress:
- On SSN 797, Iowa, key nuclear work was completed significantly faster than it has been on previous boats—a 33-day total versus previous best of 38 days.
- On SSN 799, Idaho, the hull butt weld of section 7-8 was completed. Also on 799, the command and control systems module was completed and is ready for installation.
- On SSN 801, Utah, final testing was completed on the command and control systems module.
- On SSN 803, the bilge tank complex was landed on section 3D, the welding of the tank was completed and the QA inspection has started.
- On SSN 804, payload tubes 9 and 10 were inserted and welded into the hull section. We’ve achieved significant improvements in performance in our tube insertion fixture that will help us with schedule performance on the Virginia Payload Module.
In maintenance and modernization, Historic Ship Nautilus undocked last month, and the team is completing the restoration of the topside decking. She’s scheduled to move back to the Submarine Force Museum in early August. The Hartford contract is settled, and we anticipate announcing the contract award very soon. Hartford continues to make steady progress, and we’re working to return this important ship back to the fleet as soon as possible. Work also continues on the USS Vermont’s PSA—we expect to deliver her back to the Navy later this year.
We’re making good progress on our facilities projects. At Quonset Point, the training on and commissioning of our barge Holland will be complete in the next couple of weeks. We’ve installed the insulated metal panels on the Advanced Manufacturing Project building. In Groton, on the South Yard Assembly Building, we’ve nearly completed installation of roof and insulated metal panel siding. We expect to complete the door installation in early August. We’ve energized permanent power at the South Yard Utility Building and mechanical, plumbing, electrical and life safety work is on schedule. We’re also now installing transfer rails within the building.
Work on our new Emergency Control Center is on track for the building to have its Certificate of Occupancy in early September with interior work now about 65% complete. On the combined COATS/pre-commissioning unit crew building, we’ve completed steel erection on the PCU section and started steel erection for the COATS section.
We continue to spread word that EB is hiring with ads running during live sporting events, on YouTube, radio and social media. Our HR teams have been recruiting at a variety of large, well-attended events and hopefully you’re seeing them as you make your way around this summer. This year we’ve included The Traveler’s championship in Hartford; Motorcycle Week at Laconia, New Hampshire; Rhode Island Pride Fest in Providence and Latino Fest in Hartford. We could use your help too—employee referrals are one of our best sources of new hires. Help bring new talented shipbuilders aboard, and you’ll be eligible for a variety of raffle prizes.
Our Total Safety Culture journey is continuing to make progress, and we’re setting new best-ever performance records for our recordable incident and lost workday rates. My goal is to ensure all 18,000 of us go home in the same condition we come to work in and ensure every one of you is empowered to own and control your personal safety and the safety of our people working alongside you. We need to practice 200 percent accountability, and I can think of no better way to demonstrate our Core Value of Valuing Each Other than by taking action to being 200 percent accountable.
That’s it for now. Thanks everyone; we’ll talk again soon.
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Rayha Report Ep. 19: Operations Leadership Hiring Initiative
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Lauren Knapp Honored with Victoria Soto Memorial Award
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Congratulations to Cheyne Ordonio, Winner of the 2026 High Five Coin Design Contest
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Groundbreaking Ceremony Held for New Warehouse in North Stonington
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Lessons From the Loss of USS Thresher (SSN 593) on April 10, 1963
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Rayha Report Ep. 18: CT and RI Legislative Briefings
EB President Mark Rayha delivered Legislative Briefings to congressional delegations and local leaders in Connecticut and Rhode Island on Monday, March 23. See the latest installment of the Rayha Report for a recap of the events.
Rayha Report Ep. 17: Impact of EB’s Donation to the Gemma E. Moran United Way/Labor Food Center
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