General Dynamics NASSCO has been awarded a contract modification by the US Department of Defense for work on the USS Chung-Hoon (DDG 93) and the USS James E. Williams (DDG 95) moderinsation, repair and maintenance programs.
The $438.5m modification for the US Navy is a cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to a previous contract, and contains further options that bring the cumulative value up to $864.1m if they are exercised.
General Dynamics won an initial $15.6m contract for the work in October 2023, which specified options that could accumulate to total value of $753.8m.
The guided-missile destroyers are multi-mission anti-air warfare, anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface warfare combatants designed to operate independently for the support of carriers and expeditionary and surface strike groups.
The Chung-Hoon Arleigh Burke-class destroyer which was deployed in 2023 as part of the US Nimitz-class Carrier Strike Group conduct operations in the Seventh Fleet area of operations including routinely transit operations in the Taiwan Strat in January last year.
Equipped with the Raytheon AN/SLQ-32(V)3 to perform radar warning and jamming, the vessels are armed with 56 Raytheon Tomahawk cruise missiles, with a combination of land-attack (TLAM) missiles with a Tercom aided navigation system, and anti-ship missiles with inertial guidance.
A $37m contract for the dry-docking the Chung-Hoon was awarded to BAE in 2014 to allow the vessel to undergo modernisation and maintenance intended to be completed by August of that year.
General Dynamics is set to be the third-largest supplier of naval vessels and surface combatants in North America, with a 5.6% share of the North American market over 2023–33, according to GlobalData’s The Global Naval Vessels and Surface Combatants Market 2023-2033 report.
General Dynamics NASSCO specialises in the construction and design of ships, serving both the US Navy and commercial markets. Its capabilities extend to ship repair services for the Navy, with operations in San Diego, Norfolk, Mayport and Bremerton.
Additional reporting from Harry McNeil.
