BATH, Maine – General Dynamics Bath Iron Works (BIW) has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Navy to provide shipbuilder engineering and design analysis to produce design products in support of the preliminary and contract design for DDG(X), the Navy’s next class of large surface combatant.
The design effort for DDG(X) will involve a collaborative Navy-industry effort composed of the large surface combatant shipbuilders, suppliers, ship design agents and other subject matter experts. A similar award was also made to Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), the nation’s other manufacturer of large surface combatants, according to today’s announcement from the Navy.
If all options are exercised, the contract will continue through July 2028. Fiscal Year 2022 Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (FY22 RDT&E) funds were obligated at the time of award. The specific value of the contracts were not made public for competitive reasons.
“Bath Iron Works is eager to bring our cutting edge engineering and design expertise, now applied to the DDG 51 program, to the next generation of large surface combatants,” said Bath Iron Works President Chuck Krugh. “The opportunity to work alongside HII and our industry partners to meet the Navy’s needs for capability, schedule and cost will result in synergies that build on other extremely successful Navy construction programs.”
The development of DDG(X) will draw on lessons learned from the DDG 51 program as well as the Virginia-class and Columbia-class submarine programs, which have shown that industry involvement and collaboration from the start of the program is a key enabler to program success. BIW and HII were integrated into the DDG(X) team in March 2021 to support concept refinement and decision-making early in the process.
General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, Maine’s largest manufacturer, is responsible for new construction, maintenance and modernization of surface combatants for the U.S. Navy. General Dynamics is a global aerospace and defense company that offers a broad portfolio of products and services in business aviation; ship construction and repair; land combat vehicles, weapons systems and munitions; and technology products and services. More information about General Dynamics Bath Iron Works can be found at www.gdbiw.com. More information about General Dynamics is available at www.gd.com.