Friday, May 27, 2011

San Diego Shipyard Gets 2 Ship Orders

The General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) shipyard in San Diego, Calif., received a major contract award May 27 when the U.S. Navy ordered the first two Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) ships.
The $744 million fixed-price incentive fee contract is for the detail design and construction of the two ships. The order follows several previous contracts for preliminary work on the ships, including a $115 million contract last August for long-lead material for the first ship.
The ships, which will be built to a design originally proposed by NASSCO, will be able to ballast down to float on or off barges and smaller craft. The ships will have a reconfigurable mission deck, feature a vehicle staging area and be able to carry up to three air-cushioned landing craft.
The Navy intends to order a total of three ships. The first as-yet-unnamed ship is to be delivered in 2013, although it is not expected to be operational until 2015. The ships will be assigned to Maritime Prepositioning Ship squadrons.
The MLPs were crucial to NASSCO's ability to keep its workforce employed as it starts to wind down series production of the T-AKE 1 Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ships for the Navy. A keel-laying ceremony took place May 18 for the 14th and last T-AKE, the Cesar Chavez, due for completion in November 2014.

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