A united Effort
Ingalls, NNSy NASSCO Join Forces To Bid For Next-Generation Navy Ship Three of the leading ship design and shipbuilding companies in the U.S. have joined in a team effort to bid for the design, production and life cycle support of the Navy's next generation of amphibious ships, the LPD- 17 class.
Litton's Ingalls Shipbuilding division, Pascagoula, Miss., Tenneco's Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia and National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. (NASSCO) in San Diego will bring decades of experience in naval combatant ship design, construction and fleet support to the LPD-17 program. Lockheed Martin Government Electronic Systems, Moorestown, N.J., will be on the ship production bidding team to provide ship system and combat system integration.
Ingalls will be the team's prime contractor. Pending congressional appropriation, bids for the detail design and construction of the lead ship of the new class are expected to be submitted in early- to mid-1996, with a contract awarded before the end of the government's fiscal year on Sept. 30, 1996.
The LPD-17 class will meet Navy/Marine Corps amphibious lift needs well into the 21st Century. These multi-mission ships will replace retiring ship classes with aircraft and vehicle lift, troop transport, mission support and significant self-defense capabilities exceeding their predecessors.
"Teaming of the three shipbuilding companies with Lockheed Martin will combine the resources of this nation's best ship designers and builders with a world-class ship systems integrator to achieve the highest level of efficiency in the production of the LPD-17 class," said Gerald J. St. Pe, a Litton senior vice president and Ingalls president.
In producing the LPD-17 class, Ingalls would build and completely outfit the forward portion of each ship. Newport News would do likewise with the aft portion. Each aft section, weighing more than 11,000 tons, would be floated from Newport News to Ingalls for integration into the final ship configuration. Ingalls would then complete each ship's outfitting and testing prior to delivery to the Navy.
"Ingalls and Newport News are uniquely experienced for this method of partnership production, with decades of experience in efficiently designing and building aircraft carriers, submarines, cruisers, destroyers and amphibious ships,'" Mr. St. Pe said.
Over the past 25 years, Ingalls has been the sole builder of the Navy's two most advanced amphibious assault ship classes — Tarawa class LHAs arid Wasp class LHDs — as well as builder of 60 cruisers and destroyers. Newport News Shipbuilding is America's largest privately-owned shipyard.
In its 109 years of operation, the company has built almost 800 ships, including nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, submarines, cruisers and a wide Variety of commercial vessels.
Under the teaming agreement, NASSCO would provide preconstruction support, as well as post-delivery support for Pacific Fleet-based ships of the LPD-17 class. NASSCO currently is involved in construction and conversion work in the Navy's strategic sealift program.
Lockheed Martin would provide the system integration of LPD-17's advanced machinery control, damage control, interior and exterior communications and combat systems. Its Government Electronic Systems operation, producer of the Navy's shipboard Aegis weapon system, would lead that company's work on the new program.
