Double Duty: Shipyards Building Two Submarine Classes Simultaneously BY NICK ADDE.

The design and construction of the next ballistic missile submarine entails addressing a host of unprecedented challenges for the Navy, according to service officials and experts.

The estimated S15.2 billion price tag for the first boat, a lack of skilled labor, supply chain concerns and a tight timetable are key hurdles. The Trident submarines it would replace are going to be pressed into service for years after their initial projected life expectancy.

Still, the work has begun for the Columbia-class submarine and must go on, said Navy officials. The service considers replenishment of the nation's undersea leg of the nuclear triad as its highest priority.

The USS District of Columbia (SSBN 826)--the first of 12 such vessels--is scheduled to be delivered in 2027 and ready to patrol by 2031, even as the service has to move forward with other projects. Any glitch in the schedule could have rippling effects across the service's entire shipbuilding operations, senior Navy leaders have said.

"That is a must-meet requirement for that class," said Rear Adm. Scott Pappano, the program executive officer for strategic submarines, during a Hudson Institute seminar in June.

Nonetheless, both the Navy and General Dynamics Electric Boat--the contractor building the Columbia class--say the project is progressing according to plan.

The contractor is about 20 percent into construction on the lead boat and has also started advanced construction and procurement for the second in the class, the USS Wisconsin SSBN827, said Pappano.

Eric Snider, vice president of the Columbia-class program at General Dynamics Electric Boat, expressed confidence in the process--even as construction of the new boat is taking place at the same time and shipyard where the company is building the next Virginiaclass fast-attack submarines.

The plan calls for one Columbia and two Virginia subs to be delivered per year--a considerably more accelerated pace than when the fast-attack class's namesake--SSN-74--was produced. The Virginia was launched in 2003.

"Columbia is two and a half times the size of a Virginia," Snider told National Defense. "We're not completely crazy. We've learned a lot about the modular-construction business. We've gotten off to a good start, tracking actually ahead of where the Virginia was in her build-out as a lead ship."

Eighty percent of the Columbia class's construction is taking place at Electric Boat's Quonset Point, Rhode Island, and Groton, Connecticut...