Posted on August 7, 2023
Ingalls Shipbuilding has been awarded a contract to build six additional destroyers for the U.S. Navy, the shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. announced on Monday.
The contract includes options for additional destroyers to be built, along with engineering, design and post-delivery efforts.
The dollar value of the contract was not disclosed due to “potential competitions for the option ships.” A similar contract awarded to Ingalls in 2018 was worth $5.1 billion for six Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. With construction costs rising in the years since, the new contact likely will be of higher value.
“It is a privilege for our shipbuilders to build these ships in service of our Navy,” said Ingalls president Kari Wilkinson. “We look forward to the years of stability that this award provides and the opportunity to continue working with our industry partners on this important class of ships.”
Ingalls has delivered 35 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers to the U.S. Navy including the first Flight III destroyer, USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125) in June of this year. In addition, Ingalls has four more of the Flight III destroyers currently under construction, including Ted Stevens (DDG 128), which is set to be christened this month. Additionally, Jeremiah Denton (DDG 129), George M. Neal (DDG 131) and Sam Nunn (DDG 133) are also under construction at Ingalls.
Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyers incorporate a number of design modifications that collectively provide significantly enhanced capability. DDG 125 includes the AN/SPY-6(V)1 Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) and the Aegis Baseline 10 Combat System.
Guided missile destroyers are considered the “backbone” of the U.S. Navy’s surface fleet, capable of fighting multiple air, surface and subsurface threats simultaneously.
Robert Ingalls Sr. of Birmingham founded the shipyard in 1938. With roughly 11,000 employees, including a large number of Alabama residents, Ingalls is Mississippi’s largest manufacturing employer.
