US$2.8 Billion Refueling, Overhaul Bill For US Navy’s Nuclear-Powered Aircraft Carrier

Huntington Ingalls is being awarded a $2,8 billion contract to perform refueling and complex overhaul of the USS George Washington (CVN 73), nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

Work will be performed in Newport News, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by August 2021.  Fiscal 2017 and 2016 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $1.5 billion and $57 million respectively will be obligated at contract award.

This contract was not competitively procured under the authority of 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1).  HII-INC is the original building yard contractor for all ships of the CVN-68 class, the reactor planning yard, the lead design refueling yard, and the only private shipyard capable of refueling and overhauling nuclear powered aircraft carriers.

Therefore, it is the only source with the knowledge, experience, and facilities required to accomplish this effort in support of the refueling and overhaul of CVN-73 without an unacceptable disruption of Navy-wide overhaul and repair schedule, a US DoD release said.

Meanwhile, a USNI report said Aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN-73) began a 48-month Refueling and Complex Overhaul at Newport News Shipbuilding earlier this month after serving for seven years as the forward-deployed carrier in Japan, creating a somewhat unique work package for the Navy’s sixth-ever RCOH.

Chris Miner, vice president of In-Service Aircraft Carrier Programs, was quoted as saying by USNI News that George Washington’s operations out of Yokosuka, Japan, from 2008 to 2015 both simplifies and complicates the work package for the mid-life maintenance, modernization and refueling event.

Miner was further quoted to say that changes for George Washington include new manufacturing processes, such as a change that will allow the new radar mast to be constructed in a single piece instead of in two parts, and allow that mast to be laid on its side to be outfitted with cables and insulation and paint, rather than installed in two pieces and then outfitted on the ship.

Additionally, the blocking on the dry dock was re-engineered so the carrier will actually be held six feet up in the air instead of just five feet from the bottom of the dry dock, allowing more workers to walk underneath comfortably.