The Navy awarded General Dynamics Bath Iron Works (BIW) [GD] and
HII [HII] multiyear contracts for a combined nine Arleigh Burke-class (DDG-51) destroyers lasting for five years through fiscal year 2027, but the service declined to reveal the price tag.
The contract specifically awards BIW three destroyers, one each in fiscal years 2023, 2024 and 2026. HII won awards for six DDGs: one in FY ‘23, one in ‘24, two in ‘25, one in ‘26 and one in ‘27.
The announcement noted the contracts include options for “engineering change proposals, design budgeting requirements, and post-delivery availabilities on the awarded firm multiyear ships.
The Navy underscored the contracts include options for each shipbuilder to add additional destroyers during the period, but the Defense Department said additional ships may be subject to future competition.
“The service said this option provides the Navy and Congress “flexibility to increase DDG 51 build rates, if authorized and appropriated.”
DoD said for these reasons, the values of these multiyear contracts “are considered source selection sensitive information and will not be made public at this time.”
The awarded work is expected to be finished by 2033 for BIW and 2034 for HII.
Jay Stefany, acting Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, said in a statement that these multiyear contracts will save the Navy $830 million over the five-year period rather than buying them individually while noting the additional ship options would allow them to “to accelerate delivery of the critical DDG 51 Flight III capabilities to our naval force.”
In the same statement, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro said these awards will “provide a long-term stable demand signal to the shipbuilder and industrial supply base, encouraging industry investment in the workforce. With our industry partners, we are going to continue to build them; and they will continue to secure the seas for decades to come!”
Ingalls Shipbuilding president Kari Wilkinson said the company looks “forward to the years of stability that this award provides and the opportunity to continue working with our industry partners on this important class of ships.”
Similarly, President of Bath Iron Works Chuck Krugh said that “we appreciate the opportunity to build on our history of providing these highly advanced ships for the U.S. Navy fleet and are honored to do our part to contribute to protecting the nation and our families. Flight III destroyers have significantly increased capability, and our skilled shipbuilders are committed to producing ships that meet the quality standards that our Navy Sailors deserve.”
All nine destroyers are being procured in the latest Flight III configuration that modifies the destroyers to use the RTX [RTX] AN/SPY-6(V)(1) Air and Missile Defense Radar.
The first Flight III ship, the future USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG-125), was delivered to the Navy from HII in June 2023. It is set to leave HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding yard in Pascagoula, Miss., around October when it will be commissioned (Defense Daily, June 27).
Currently, BIW has six DDGs under production: the future USS John Basilone (DDG-122), Harvey C. Barnum Jr. (DDG-124) and Patrick Gallagher (DDG-127) Flight IIA ships and the Flight III ships Louis H. Wilson Jr. (DDG-126), William Charette (DDG-130) and Quentin Walsh (DDG-132).
HII has four Flight III destroyers under construction: the future USS Ted Stevens (DDG-128), set to be christened this month; Jeremiah Denton (DDG-129); George M. Neal (DDG-131) and Sam Nunn (DDG-133).
Previously, in 2019 the Navy awarded a contract with a similar split of $5.1 billion for six HII destroyers and $3.9 billion for four BIW destroyers.
The split indicates the Navy is acknowledging GD BIW has had more delays in delivering destroyers it is already on contract to build while it was previously also building the three-ship Zumwalt-class destroyers.