Groton - For the new submarine that will be christened Saturday, Electric Boat did not wait as it normally would to test the engine room until the boat was in the water.

Instead, the company leased a large boiler to create the steam it needed to test pipes and valves and run the generators that produce electricity while the submarine, the Mississippi, was still on the blocks in the main building shed.

The new technique shortened the construction time for the Mississippi by a month. EB now plans to buy the boiler to use for the rest of its subs, saying the move will save the program $24 million.

On Saturday, Allison Stiller, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for ship programs and the ship's sponsor, will smash a bottle of champagne over the hull to christen the Mississippi (SSN 782), the ninth vessel in the Virginia class. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus will be the principal speaker.

The submarine will officially become the USS Mississippi when it is commissioned next year.

EB is on track to deliver the Mississippi to the Navy in April - a year earlier than the contracted date - following a construction time of 62 months, John Holmander, EB's vice president who manages the Virginia-class program, said this week. EB and Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia build Virginia-class submarines under a teaming agreement.

The previous two submarines, the USS Missouri and the USS California, were each built in 65 months. The goal is to cut the construction time to 60 months.

EB and the Navy are also working to get the price of each submarine down to $2 billion in fiscal 2005 dollars by next year - about $2.6 billion in 2012 dollars. Holmander said the Mississippi is currently $64 million under budget.

Testing the engine room in September while the Mississippi was still on land quickened the pace of construction by reducing the testing time to about two weeks instead of a month, Holmander said. Testing after the sub is in the water will also move more quickly, he added, since the steam testing is already complete.

Holmander said the project succeeded because of the innovation and teamwork that exists at the shipyard. "To pull off a change on a program like this really takes extraordinary teamwork on the part of people working throughout the organization," he said.

Newport News is reviewing the process to possibly implement it there.

Fifty EB employees - dubbed the "steam team" - developed and perfected the technique. They wear black jackets bearing the words "steam team," a thank-you from the company, to show their team affiliation.

The Navy's program executive officer for submarines, Rear Adm. David Johnson, and the Virginia-class program manager, Rear Adm. (Select) Michael Jabaley, both praised the technique in interviews at the Naval Submarine League's Annual Symposium this fall.

"You don't know what you're going to find the first time you put steam in the engine room. And if you find it months earlier than you would have otherwise, that gives you more time to fix it," said Jabaley, who has been selected for promotion to rear admiral. "Now, we didn't find anything that was a huge problem that took a lot of time to fix, but you never know if you're going to."

As an incentive to the Virginia-class submarine contract, the Navy will fund certain projects submitted by the shipyards that aim to reduce construction costs, in this case $9 million to lease the boiler and build the connection to the sub. Fifty percent will be paid up front; the shipyard receives the rest if the project is finished and actually saves money.

"It's a smart investment," Johnson said. "We both share in the reduced cost of that ship, and the Submarine Force community gets the ship that much earlier."

j.mcdermott@theday.com