Development of High-Speed Underwater Transport Craft

, GROTON, Conn: General Dynamics Electric Boat has been awarded a $5.7 million contract to support development of the Underwater Express, an undersea transport capable of controllable speeds up to 100 knots through supercavitation. Electric Boat is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics. 
 
This Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency-funded effort will help determine the feasibility of supercavitation technology to enable a new class of high-speed underwater craft for future littoral missions that could involve the transport of high-value cargo and/or small units of personnel. Supercavitation involves surrounding an object with a bubble that allows it to travel at high speed. 
 
This contract contains two options, which if exercised, would bring the cumulative potential value of this contract to $37.1 million. 
 
The Underwater Express Program will demonstrate stable and controllable high-speed underwater transport through supercavitation. The program will investigate and resolve critical technological issues associated with the physics of supercavitation and will culminate in a credible demonstration at a significant scale to prove that a supercavitating underwater craft is controllable at speeds up to 100 knots.  
 
General Dynamics, headquartered in Falls Church, Va., employs approximately 81,100 people worldwide and expects 2006 revenue of approximately $24 billion. The company is a market leader in mission-critical information systems and technologies; land and expeditionary combat systems, armaments and munitions; shipbuilding and marine systems; and business aviation.