BATH, Maine — The U.S. Navy on Monday awarded a third Arleigh Burke-class destroyer (DDG) to Huntington Ingalls Industries, the only shipyard other than Bath Iron Works (BIW) to build the DDG 51 guided-missile destroyers.
The $936 million award for DDG 135 could increase to $947.7 million if options are exercised, according to the Department of Defense release.
The ship is part of a 2018 multi-ship procurement that awarded ten DDG 51s to the two shipbuilders, with six initially awarded to Ingalls and four to BIW, with the potential for additional ships to be awarded if additional funding became available.
BIW won an additional ship in FY 2019.
On Monday, the Navy awarded a third hull for FY 2020 to Ingalls—an award based on an "alternate award pattern" rather than the lowest bid, U.S. Navy Contracting Officer Richard Rossi wrote in a letter to General Dynamics and provided to NEWS CENTER Maine.
"Following receipt of revised pricing ... the contracting officer determined an alternate award pattern, other than the lowest option ship target price, was warranted in accordance with existing industrial base considerations and selected Ingalls as the successful offeror."
In a statement Tuesday afternoon, BIW spokesman David Hench said, "The recent award from the Navy to our competitor Huntington Ingalls Industries for the FY20 option ship reaffirms the fact that our work as a shipbuilder is within an increasingly competitive environment that requires changes to our current processes in order to win new work.
"Our focus today is how to adjust more quickly to the changing day-to-day needs on the deckplates to safely accelerate production," the statement continued, in part. "In the short-term, the changes we make will help us recover schedule. In the longer term, delivering on time and with greater efficiency will enable us to compete for the next multi-year contract, the second half of the FFG(X) schedule, or the next new platform our customer demands.
CORRECTION: Based on an incorrect report by USNI News, a previous version of this story reported that the U.S. Navy selected Ingalls Shipbuilding to build the third destroyer based on a lower bid. The story has been updated.