December 8, 2000 -- Litton Ingalls Shipbuilding has been awarded a $338.2 million contract to build an additional DDG 51 Class Aegis guided missile destroyer for the United States Navy. Litton Ingalls Shipbuilding is a division of Litton Industries (NYSE: LIT), and part of the Litton Ship Systems (LSS) group.
The contract awarded today represents the funding for DDG 100, the Fiscal Year 2001 ship included in a multi-year contract awarded to Ingalls in March 1998. With today's award, Ingalls has been awarded contracts to build 24 Aegis destroyers, of which 13 ships have been delivered. A 14th, LASSEN (DDG 82), completed successful initial predelivery sea trials last month, and will be commissioned in mid-2001. The Navy plans a total of 57 ships in the DDG 51 program, of which 51 have now been procured.
"This contract reemphasizes Ingalls Shipbuilding's commitment to building the most advanced surface combatants for the U.S. Navy, as we have continued to do since we delivered USS BARRY (DDG 52) in 1992," said Jerry St. Pe', Chief Operating Officer of Litton Ship Systems, and Executive Vice President of Litton Industries. "The Navy's multi-year procurement approach has brought stability to the Aegis destroyer program, to our nation's shipbuilding industrial base, and to our Company's business planning process. Delivery dates on DDG 51 destroyers at Ingalls extend into 2006, and will keep our experienced, seasoned workforce of destroyer builders engaged well into the 21st century."
Litton Ship Systems, headquartered in Pascagoula, includes Ingalls and the LSS Full Service Center, both in Pascagoula, and Litton Avondale Industries in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Gulfport, Miss. LSS, which currently employs nearly 17,000 shipbuilding professionals in Mississippi and Louisiana, is one of the nation's leading full service systems companies for the design, engineering, construction, and life cycle support of major surface ships for the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard and international navies, for cruise ships, and other commercial vessels of all types. LSS has a firm business backlog exceeding $5.5 billion, in a variety of naval and commercial shipbuilding programs.
Litton Industries is also a leading information technology (IT) contractor to the U.S. government and provides specialized IT services to commercial and government customers in local and international jurisdictions. Litton provides defense and commercial electronics technology, components, and materials for customers worldwide. Headquartered in Woodland Hills, California, the company has more than 40,000 employees.
The U.S. Navy's Aegis program is one of the most important shipbuilding programs in America today. Truly multimission combatants, Aegis ships are designed to provide primary protection for the Navy's battle forces, but are also the most balanced surface warships ever built, equipped with the weapons, electronics, helicopter support facilities, and propulsion, auxiliary and survivability systems to carry out the U.S. Navy's missions today, and into the next century.
Aegis destroyers are equipped to conduct a variety of missions, from peacetime presence and crisis management to sea control and power projection, in support of national military strategy. The ships operate with battle groups in high-threat environments and also provide essential escort capabilities to Navy and Marine Corps amphibious forces, combat logistics ships and convoys. The ships are 509.5 feet long, with a beam of 66 feet. Four gas turbine engines power the 9,238-ton ships to speeds in excess of 30 knots. As the U.S. Navy's first Aegis shipbuilder, Ingalls also delivered 19 ships in the 27-ship TICONDEROGA (CG 47) Class of guided missile cruisers.