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The US Navy is expected to award a two-aircraft carrier contract to Newport News Shipbuilding, after the US Department of Defense formally notified the Congress on December 31st.
This would note the first dual-aircraft carrier contract since the 1980s.
The Navy has been priming to undertake the move since March 2018, claiming that it could potentially save as much as $2.5 billion in the deal, recently stating that the deal could save even more than that. Newport News Shipbuilding was also open and willing to conclude the deal, but the Pentagon took until December 31st to present the letter to the lawmakers.
The Pentagon sent a certification letter to Congress that outlines the contracting strategy and how much time and money it would allow the Navy to save on hulls the Enterprise (CVN-80) and the yet unnamed CVN-81. An unnamed Congress staffer was cited by USNI News claiming that the dual-carrier contract could save about $4 billion.
The Navy could potentially award the contract by the end of January 2019.
USNI News cited a Navy spokesman, who claimed that “the Navy has reached a price agreement with Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding for a two-carrier buy of CVN-80 and 81. Further information will be available upon contract award.”
Under the National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2019, Congress agreed that the Navy may enter into the CVN-80 and 81 contracts, as long as the US Secretary of Defense certifies the award of the contract at least 30 days in advance that “the use of such a contract will result in significant savings compared to the total anticipated costs of carrying out the program through annual contracts,” in addition to there being enough funding in the budget, to allow for the purchase of both hulls, that the design is stable and there is no excessive technical risk, and that the contract will be fixed-price and not endless get more expensive similarly to the F-35 fighter jet.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a Senate Armed Services Committee member and a proponent of the two-carrier buy from the Virginia-based Newport News Shipbuilding yard, said in a Dec. 31 statement that “I’m thrilled the Navy has decided to pursue a block buy for aircraft carriers, something I’ve been advocating to save billions in taxpayer dollars and offer more certainty to the Hampton Roads defense community. This smart move will save taxpayer dollars and help ensure the shipyards can maintain a skilled workforce to get the job done. Newport News builds the finest carriers in the world, and I know they are ready to handle this increase in work as we make progress toward the Navy’s goal of a 355-ship fleet.”
Newport News Shipbuilding has not yet released a statement on the potential contract award. But, in March, Mark Petters, president of Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding, said that “we believe the most effective way to reduce cost of aircraft carriers is to take a multi-ship purchase approach and build them every three to four years. Buying two ships at once stabilizes the Newport News Shipbuilding workforce and their national supplier base, allows us to buy materials in quantity, and phase work more efficiently.”
More money thrown down the drain for floating coffins, the paradigm of hypersonic weapons and their killing potential is a moot point with the US MOD. The The Super Hornets and the F35C’s on board of these carriers are not going to change the the US inability to project power against a peer power that’s uses robust naval assets and a far superior array of antiship weapons.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.
I must agree with this assessment… The era of the “super carrier” is rapidly coming to a close with the advent of the superior Russian/Chinese hypersonic missiles that will cut through carrier defenses easily and blow up these floating monstrosities within a few hours of any new shooting war!
They will be coming from all types of platforms – sea surface, sub, air launched and land. Also from a range beyond the carriers defences. Combat air patrols will be pointless and also vulnerable to missile attack.
Lasers go faster than hypersonic
Nice! Keep spending loads of money on outdated weapons systems. This is precisely why China build(s) a few carriers to scare the US in spending far far more resources in them. These days a single long range underwater drone can sink them at less than 1/100th the replacement cost and without loss of life.
A volume purchase discount,how innovative. What comes next ,loyalty reward points, keep spending even more to save.
Purchase the super carriers using a credit card that has a rewards program?? You never know!
So in typical US fashion more of a untried and still faulty product gets ordered in order to make the program too big to fail. What a surprise. On the plus side there will be another USS Enterprise soon. Which pleases my inner Trekkie.
“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.”(Sun Tzu)
America is trying to appear strong, it’s all for show, the ships will never be built.
They are struggling to make the first one of the class useful http://www.pogo.org/straus/issues/defense-budget/2017/how-not-to-build-a-ship-uss-ford.html
great big friggin boats to float around in and be king of the waves or like the brits say – ‘england (should be the moronic states now a days) rules the waves and the lawyers say ‘england waives the rules’.