Page 32: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 1986)

U.S. NAVY

STATUS OF NAVY SHIP PROCUREMENT

IMA provides a quarterly report- ing service on Navy ship construc- tion and maintenance programs.

More than 300 companies now sub- scribe to IMA's quarterly service.

This article describing the status of shipbuilding programs is based on excerpts from a recent quarterly re- port on Navy procurement. Infor- mation is current as of mid-May.

Submarines

Newport News informed the

Navy it will likely bid on future Tri- dent construction contracts. Until now GD-Electric Boat has been sole supplier of the Trident submarine.

The Navy plans to buy 20 Tridents, 13 of which have already been con- tracted to GD-Electric Boat. Con- tracting is at the rate of one subma- rine per year. Program funding to- taling $7.9 billion is planned over the next five years.

Newport News and GD-Electric

Boat are building SSN-688 class at- tack submarines. Both are compet- ing for lead position in the new attack submarine (SSN-21) pro- gram. Funding of $454 million has been requested for advance procure- ment in FY 1987 for the SSN-21.

Lead ship procurement is scheduled in FY 1989. Over the next five years the Navy proposes to spend $5.3 bil- lion on the SSN-21 program and $10.3 billion is planned to complete the SSN-688 program.

High priority has been given to improving U.S. antisubmarine war- fare systems. The SSN-21 is said to be essential in order to counter im- provements in Soviet submarine ca- pability. The new submarine will be able to operate at higher speed, be quieter and dive deeper than the current SSN-688 class submarine. It will have advanced sensors able to search out enemy submarines. Navy says "new features of this subma- rine represent a quantum improve- ment over earlier designs."

Aegis Surface Combatants

Litton-Ingalls and Bath continue to build CG-47 class cruisers. A total force of 27 ships is planned. Four ships have been delivered, 15 are under contract. To complete the project, $7.5 billion has been pro- grammed for 8 ships. Contracting is planned at the rate of two per year.

This is a slight stretch-out of the program as originally planned.

Bath is in the detailed design phase of its contract to build the lead DDG-51. Fabrication of the lead ship is to begin in late March 1987; keel laying is scheduled for late December 1987; launch is planned in September 1988.

The Navy plans to issue the RFP for three follow DDG's in July.

Todd, Litton-Ingalls and Bath will compete for the three ships in this solicitation package. A total DDG program of 29 ships is planned. Over the next five years the Navy has proposed a funding level of almost $14 billion for procurement of 17

DDG's.

Amphibious Ships

A multibillion-dollar contract for follow ships in the LHD-1 program is the principal procurement now taking place in this area. Last Au- gust the RFP for three ships was issued. Bidders submitted unpriced technical proposals to the Navy on

February 28. Price proposals will be requested following completion of the technical evaluation. Contract award is scheduled this summer.

The Navy has programmed $3.4 bil- lion for this multiyear procurement over the next five years. Litton-

Ingalls has the lead ship contract for

LHD-1 and is obviously among the bidders for the follow ship con- tract.

The Navy has programmed $1.2 billion to procure a cargo version of the LSD-41. The new version (LSD- 49) will be similar to the LSD-41, but be designed to carry fewer air cushion landing craft. Lockheed and

Avondale are now building LSD ships. No schedule has been set for this new procurement.

Six TACS crane ship conversions are planned over the next three years. About $180 million is bud- geted for this program. Bay Ship- building, Continental Maritime and

Dillingham have been awarded con- tracts for the first three crane ship conversions. Bids for TACS 4-6 were submitted to the Maritime Ad- ministration (who is executing the work for the Navy) in May. The eleven yards submitting bids—and their prices—are shown in Exhibit 2.

MarAd expects to award a con- tract for a three ship TACS package in July. The apparent low bidder is

Bethlehem-Sparrows Point. In sec- ond place is Norshipco—with an ap- parent low bid about $8,000 under

CW LUCAS ITD \AflCOUVt*. It-,

CAMA£*

MOOUTKH MAMWt

UCOMA WA

TOOO SwTfitoS

UMNt Wf« A*0

KX*rwt»n Couw swmt ** mqnauk too COM^KY

MOHTKOlO. A*

AOCALANO. MA

TECHNICAL fKE«GLASS

CUWTOfc. **

ZOQIAC Q» MQfTH AMfSICA

STEVEHSVIU.I. M0

MOSSPQlf MARWf *C [SUTAWfA MS atlawtic M«wwt mc n CfOftGf ISIAKC K wATEHCturf AMtwie* tDGfWATER. fl laxtana sqatyaro mc

LANTAHA fL

Exhibit 2

Bids on TACS 4-6 Conversion

Bid Price

Shipyard (millions of $)

Alabama Drydock $52.76

Bay Shipbuilding 50.52

Bethlehem-Sp Pt. 41.24

Dillingham 46.97

Fraser 65.96

Houston Ship Repair 54.93

Jacksonville 95.66

Norshipco 46.96

Tampa 47.70

Todd-Galveston 55.26

Todd-San Francisco 59.55

Source: NAVSEA

Dillingham. These prices include the cost of the cranes.

Support Ships

Approximately 10 percent of planned SCN funding over the next five years is earmarked for support ship procurement. Here's the status and our assessment of future devel- opments in each program. • TAO-187—Nine ships are now on order: six at Avondale, three at

Penn Ship. The first ship is to be sent on sea trials within the next few weeks. To date, aside from minor issues with the PTO generator and

UNREP equipment placement, there have been few problems in this program. The Navy's objective is to build 19 of this class of ship.

The remaining program will be open to competition. Alternative engines will be considered in the next flight of TAO's. • TAGOS (conventional)—The

Navy has negotiated with Tacoma

Boat to complete ships 9 and 10 in this trouble-plagued program. The remaining two ships in the 12 ship package to Tacoma will be recom- peted. Hardware bought by Tacoma for ships 11 and 12 will be specified as GFM in the bid package. Award of ships 11 and 12 to a new builder is planned for mid-1987. Ships 13-18 are under contract to Halter Ma- rine. • TAGOS (SWATH)—An RFP package was sent to prospective builders on May 5. The competition is open to all shipyards. Each of the ten yards participating in the design competition are supposed to earn extra evaluation points. Award will be in September. Starting FY 1988 all TAGOS ships will be SWATH design. The Navy plans to build a force of 26 TAGOS, nine of which will be SWATH design. • AE—The Navy has placed on

KMX* SHiPVATO mobile . K nn^m* we

LAW WOWTK fl 1 32 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News