[JumpCrisscross]

> that requires the companies involved to build more dockyards, train more workers (this is fairly specialized stuff), etc.

I suppose I’m curious for the specific fixed costs General Dynamics is concerned about and why they can’t bake that into the price of the second boat.

[openasocket]

Many of the costs aren’t actually fixed. There’s all those extra workers you’ll need to pay, and training will have to be ongoing to account for turnover. Oh, and this is fairly specialized work, meaning if someone decides to specialize in it they may not have a ton of job opportunities outside of Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls. To even get people to apply you’ll need to increase wages. Even the fixed costs like building some new dry docks and factories could be in the billions. Oh, and you can’t forget everything here has multi-year lead times. Virginia class submarines take 5+ years to build. There are 9 under construction right now per Wikipedia.