The U.S. Navy has awarded Electric Boat, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics, a 5-year, $443 million contract for the design of the Trident SSGN, a multimission submarine optimized for covert strike and special operations support. Under the terms of the contract, Electric Boat will begin detail design and related support work to convert the first four Ohio-class ballistic- missile submarines (also known as Tridents) to an SSGN configuration. The submarines to be converted, coincident with their mid-life refuelings, are USS Ohio (SSBN-726), USS Michigan (SSBN-727), USS Florida (SSBN-728) and USS Georgia (SSBN-729). Electric Boat designed and built all 18 ships of the Ohio class.