Huntington Ingalls Industries‘ (HII) Ingalls Shipbuilding unit has received an affordability design contract from the US Navy to lower the construction and lifecycle cost for the amphibious assault ship landing helicopter assault (LHA 8).
Ingalls Shipbuilding president Brian Cuccias said: "Ingalls Shipbuilding has been constructing large-deck amphibious ships for nearly 50 years, and this contract will build on our company’s knowledge and experience to implement cost-saving measures to help the navy reach their affordability goals."
The affordability design phase is intended to enable shipbuilders to improve contract design requirements for a more reasonable vessel, by addressing the cost-driving requirements within the design-trade space that present the best potential for procurement, production and overall costs.
Under the contract, Ingalls will be responsible for deploying design and production engineers, planners and a range of operations professionals to take part in the preliminary design of the ship.
It will also help the navy achieve their affordability objectives by implementing ideas and knowledge of building amphibious warships.
Ingalls is the sole builder of amphibious ships for the US Navy, and delivered its first amphibious assault ship, the Iwo Jima-class USS Tripoli (LPH 10), in 1966.
Since then, Ingalls has constructed five Tarawa-class (LHA 1) vessels and eight Wasp-class (LHD 1) vessels, and has recently delivered USS America (LHA 6), the first in a new class of amphibious assault ships.
