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Navy confirms new deal on DDGs

The Navy confirmed Monday it has struck a deal with contractors General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman to solidify shipbuilding plans for the next several years, but some details still remained under wraps.

General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works yard in Bath, Maine, will build all the Zumwalt-class destroyers, however many that proves to be, and Northrop Grumman’s shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., will re-start production of Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, Navy spokesman Lt. Clay Doss confirmed.

The deal also includes a provision for Northrop Grumman’s shipyard in Avondale, La., to continue building San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks.

The GD-Northrop arrangement was pitched last week by Defense Secretary Robert Gates as part of his broad realignment of Pentagon acquisitions, and quickly cemented by the Navy and the two defense giants. Congressional and industry sources confirmed the deal had been done, but the Navy didn’t fully acknowledge the arrangement until Monday.

The Navy also didn’t say what stipulations would be made to determine whether Bath builds one Zumwalt or three. Gates said that if the Navy and General Dynamics couldn’t work things out, Bath would build just the first Zumwalt, which would be a test ship, as opposed to the class of three.

Those are “business-sensitive details,” Doss said, so the Navy couldn’t discuss them. But the likelihood of a three-ship class was “firmer” because of the deal, he said, and Northrop Grumman would continue to participate in building components for the Zumwalts, such as their composite deckhouses.

The Navy plans to order two destroyers in its fiscal 2010 budget: It will fund the second half of the as-yet unnamed DDG 1002 — the third Zumwalt, the first part of which was ordered in fiscal 2009 — and one Arleigh Burke. That Burke, the as-yet unnamed DDG 113, will be built by Northrop Grumman.

That order would complete procurement on the three Zumwalts and provide for the first new Arleigh Burke since the Michael Murphy, which was awarded as DDG 112 to Bath Iron Works in 2002.

In fiscal 2011, the Navy plans to order another ship for Northrop, DDG 114, and a ship for Bath, DDG 115. The three Burkes will be delivered with an advanced new upgrade of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system, having been designed with “open” systems that can accept regular software upgrades without the need for new computers.

The Navy’s arrangement provides “significant stability” for the shipbuilding industrial base, Doss said, and ensures the U.S. will sustain two shipyards that can build large surface combatants. The shipyards’ representatives in Congress praised the arrangement last week, although lawmakers must still approve the Navy’s plans in this year’s budget.