Litton Avondale Industries, a division of Litton Industries, has been awarded a $477.7 million contract by the U.S. Navy for the construction of an additional ship in the Navy's newest class of amphibious assault ships. The cost reimbursable contract is for the construction of LPD 20, the fourth ship in a planned 12-ship program. The follow-on eight ships in the LPD 17 San Antonio Class program will be awarded over the next four years.
As prime contractor for the LPD 17 program, Litton Avondale leads a team comprised of Bath Iron Works, Raytheon Electronic Systems and Intergraph Corporation. Design of the lead ship of the class is underway at Litton Avondale with actual production scheduled to begin this summer. Eight ships in the planned 12-ship program, including the contract awarded today for LPD 20, will be built at Litton Avondale in New Orleans. Four of the vessels will be produced at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine.
"Award of this additional ship in the LPD 17 program reaffirms the vital importance of this program to the Navy and Marine Corps," said Jerry St. Pe', Litton executive vice president and chief operating officer of Litton Ship Systems. "The partnership between the Navy and Avondale and other team members in this program is resulting in revolutionary front end design solutions to reduce the life-cycle operating cost of
this new class of ships by billions of dollars."
The LPD 17 Amphibious Transport Dock Ships are designed to be 684 feet (208.4 m) long and 105 feet (31.9 m) wide and will be the functional replacement for the LPD 4, LSD 36, LKA 113, and LST 1179 Classes of Amphibious ships. The ship's mission is to embark, transport and land elements of a landing force in an assault by helicopters, landing craft, and amphibious vehicles to conduct an
amphibious warfare mission.