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30 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • JUNE 2014 ance provided. We continue to maximize our presence in the Asia-Paci? c and the Middle East using innovative combina- tions of rotational, forward-basing, and forward stationing forces.” U.S. naval shipbuilders are com- ponents of large defense companies. General Dynamics own Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut, which builds SSNs; Bath Iron Works in Maine, cur- rently building Zumwalt and Arleigh Burke class DDGs; and NASSCO in San Diego, California, where they are building the mobile landing platform (MLP). Huntington Ingalls Industries owns yards in Newport News, Virginia; Pascagoula, Mississippi; and Avondale, Louisiana, and are building aircraft car- riers (CVNs), attack submarines (SSNs); guided missile destroyers (DDGs), am- phibious assault ships (LHSs) and am- phibious landing platforms (LPDs). Two second-tier yards which are sub- sidiaries of larger foreign-owned compa- nies are also building ships for the U.S. Navy. Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri owns Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wis., where the Freedom variant of the littoral combat ship (LCS) is being con- structed; and Australia-owned Austal USA is building the Independence vari- ant LCS platform in Mobile, Alabama, along with the joint high speed vessel (JHSV). Submarines The U.S. Navy announced a $17.6 billion multiyear buy of Virginia-class submarines on April 28 that will keep General Dynamics Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls Newport News ship- yards busy for a decade. EB was se- lected as the sole source prime contrac- tor for the $17,645,580,644 ? xed-price incentive multiyear contract, with Hun- tington Ingalls as the largest sub-con- tractor. Together, both companies have delivered 10 Virginia-class submarines to the Navy, with eight more already un- der contract. The newest Virginia-class SSN, North Dakota (SSN-784), was christened Nov. 2, 2013 at Electric Boat, but her commis- sioning, which was scheduled for May 2014, has been rolled back until some design and material issues are resolved. It is still on track to deliver prior to its August 31 contract delivery date. North Dakota is the ? rst Virginia-class boat with a redesigned bow which features a pair of Multiple All Up Round Canisters (MAC) for Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles. Aircraft Carriers The newest nuclear aircraft carrier, Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) was chris- tened Nov. 9, 2013 at Newport News Shipbuilding. Two others, John F. Ken- nedy and Enterprise, are underway in the construction pipeline. The Navy budget says it continues to support a ? eet of 11 aircraft carriers, but Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Ser- vices, says, “The budget in Future Years THE 2014 YEARBOOK: NAVY SHIPBUILDING The Military Sealift Command mobile landing platform ship USNS Montford Point (T-MLP 1) is fl oated out of General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard. (U.S. Navy photo cour tesy of General Dynamics NASSCO/Released) MR #6 (26-33).indd 30 5/29/2014 9:11:41 AM
