THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, August 3, 1994              TAG: 9408030397
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                         LENGTH: Short :   31 lines

NEW SUBS WILL COST HALF AS MUCH AS ORIGINALLY PROJECTED, NAVY SAYS

The Navy's proposed new attack submarines could be built for about $1.5 billion each - roughly half the cost projected by a Senate committee - once designs are completed, the service asserted Tuesday.

Lt. Conrad Chun, a Navy spokesman, said cost estimates released last week by the Senate Appropriations Committee were inflated because the committee included the entire cost of designing the new class of submarine in the projected cost of just the first ship off the production line.

The Navy contends the design costs should be spread over all the subs in the class. This would lower the cost from the $3.1 billion projected by the committee for the first ship to about $1.5 billion per ship, Chun said.

The Pentagon's Defense Acquisition Board on Monday gave the go-ahead for the Navy to order the first of the new subs, which are known as the Centurion class and are to be built by Electric Boat in Groton, Conn.

Under the Pentagon's ``bottom up review'' of last fall, submarines are to be built exclusively by Electric Boat and aircraft carriers will continue to be built by Newport News Shipbuilding.

The new sub is intended as a replacement for the Seawolf class, an advanced attack boat. by CNB