WEST 2026 — The first Columbia-class submarine is expected for delivery in 2028, and full-rate construction of the vessel is expected in the early 2030s, according to Program Executive Officer Strategic Submarines Rear Adm. Todd Weeks.
“With Columbia, we’ve been on a steady ramp-up to full-rate construction,” Weeks said here at the annual WEST 2026 conference Wednesday in San Diego. “We will hit full-rate construction in 2031.
“On the lead ship, the District of Columbia, she is about 65, 66 percent complete,” Weeks continued. “This time last year, we sat down with our shipbuilding partners, and we realized we were not where we needed to be on the District of Columbia, right? We were not making the progress we needed to be making, and the trend lines were not heading in the right direction.”
As a result, Weeks said that the service and its shipbuilding partners crafted an acceleration plan to deliver all the modules that make up the Columbia-class submarine to the final assembly yard at General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, Conn., by the end of 2025. The last part, a bow from Newport News, was delivered in November — several months ahead of the schedule laid out in the acceleration plan.
“So the plan in January [2025] had that bow delivering in June of this year, we were able to pull it back into November — a really monumental endeavor and it built a lot of momentum in the program that we’re continuing to carry on today,” Weeks said.
Weeks said that the District of Columbia, which was originally scheduled for delivery in 2027, is on track for delivery in 2028. Additionally, he said the second Columbia-class submarine, the future Wisconsin, is roughly 35 percent complete and is still tracking for an on-schedule delivery in 2030.
“It is today, only one of two US Navy ships under construction that are on schedule,” Weeks said.
Weeks previously told lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee in April that he expected the submarine would face a 12 to 18-month delay, but that plans were underway to “accelerate and recover as much schedule as we possibly can.” He also told lawmakers then that the Wisconsin remained on schedule.
The Navy first reported in 2024 that multiple shipbuilding programs were plagued with delays stemming from shipyard workforce and supply chain challenges, and that the District of Columbia would likely encounter a 12 to 16-month delivery delay as a result.