According to Pascagoula Mississippi Press, while the welders, fitters and engineers at Northrop Grumman work on the ships that will soon form the nucleus of the Navy's updated surface fleet, two companies are providing critical shipbuilding assistance. El Segundo, Calif.,-based Computer Science Corp.'s Advanced Marine Unit in Pascagoula and Gautier-based Omni Engineering are working under contracts with the Navy's Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion and Repair, to provide support with evaluating and analyzing ship designs and engineering plans and monitoring various parts supply chains for the ships. In two cases, the companies are partnered under joint contracts on certain shipbuilding programs. In the case of CSC and Omni, both companies have contracts involving oversight work on the multi-purpose amphibious warship Makin Island, which is expected to be christened on August 19, and LHA 6, the Navy's next generation of amphibious warship that bears some of the characteristics of the Navy's Tarawa class LHDs. CSC also has contracts with SupShips for the San Antonio class LPD amphibious ships and potentially with the
DDG 1000 destroyer, which was formerly known as the DDX. CSC's relationship with the Navy's LPD 17 program goes back to the late 1980s and early 1980s, when the company began the concept design on the newest class of LPD amphibious ship. Omni has a series of quality assurance and logistical support contracts that are expected to run through 2006 or 2007; 80 percent of them are on LHD 8, known as Makin Island. Other contracts involve work on the LHA 6 amphibious ship and DDG 1000. The company assists SupShips with reviewing specifications and engineering plans, and also with quality assurance and logistics support, which involves monitoring parts and equipment for the ships. (Source: Pascagoula Mississippi Press)