Navy Cruiser Modernization Contract For Ingalls Shipbuilding

Ingalls Shipbuilding division gets an US$83.3-million cost-plus-award-fee contract to modernize USS Ticonderoga-class (CG 47) Aegis guided missile cruisers.

The contract, for continued life-cycle engineering, modernization and support services, is the first of five options which, if exercised, would place the total value of the contract at US$468.2-million.

Ingalls, as lead shipbuilder for the Aegis cruiser program, delivered 19 of the 27 Ticonderoga-class ships between 1982 and 1994. The CG 47-class cruisers represent a significant portion of the Navy's surface combatants, and the modernization effort will increase their service life and war-fighting capability for another 20 years. Ingalls will perform the work in Pascagoula and provide waterfront support in U.S. Navy ports in Norfolk, Va.; Mayport, Fla.; San Diego; Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and Yokosuka, Japan.

"This award builds on the U.S. Navy's confidence in the versatility we have as a shipbuilding company in not only building quality warships, but also in providing life-cycle and modernization support," said Bob Merchent, Ingalls' vice president, surface combatants and U.S. Coast Guard programs. "This contract validates Ingalls Shipbuilding's long-standing reputation for excellence in fleet sustainment and in building CG 47-class ships."