Posted on January 9, 2023
Huntington Ingalls Industrie (NYSE: HII) reports that its Ingalls Shipbuilding division has been awarded a $10.5 million contract for the modernization period planning of Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyers, USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) and USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001).
“Ingalls is honored to have been selected to deliver this new capability with our Navy and industry partners,” Ingalls Shipbuilding president Kari Wilkinson said. “Our shipbuilders stand ready to do what is necessary to enable our fleet in the protection of peace around the world.”
HYPERSONIC MISSILES
According to a report posted by USNI News in August last year, the Zumwalt-class upgrades will see the ships become the first warships in the U.S. Navy to deploy hypersonic missiles. The USNI News story quotes a pre-solicitation notice from Naval Sea Systems Command as saying that Ingalls Shipbuilding had been selected for the work because “the modernization scope of the effort will require specialized yard cranes for greater lift capacity, dry-dock facilities, covered assembly areas, and dedicated fabrication shops.”
“Use of an alternative source, other than HII, would result in unacceptable ship and program schedule delays and would produce adverse impacts to the DDG 1000/1001 operational requirements,” the notice saif.
Earlier, USNI News reported the Navy would remove the two advanced gun system (AGS) mounts aboard each ship for to install tubes that would accommodate the vertical launch system for the common hypersonic glide body (C-HGB) developed for the Army, Air Force and the Navy.
