PASCAGOULA, Miss., June 5, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- The U.S. Navy has awarded Ingalls Shipbuilding, a Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) company, a $154.9 million contract to begin advance procurement of materials for the construction of future DDG 51 Class Aegis destroyers. The contract is to purchase a variety of DDG class equipment items for three additional Aegis destroyers authorized by Congress.
Actual ship construction contracts are to be awarded to Ingalls and Bath Iron Works in a single, multiyear procurement process to be conducted later this year. The multiyear procurement plan calls for a total of six ships -- three to Bath, three to Ingalls -- with funding scheduled during a three-year period from the 2002 through 2004 fiscal years.
The advanced procurement plan, the Economic Order Quantities, allows both shipbuilders to place orders for equipment for all ships authorized during the three-year period. This process, which allows the shipbuilders and their suppliers to plan for multiship procurement, will save taxpayers millions of dollars.
Today's material procurement contract funds the advance purchase of long-lead time equipment such as engines, gears, generators, air conditioners and other major items.
Since 1987, Ingalls has been awarded contracts to construct 24 Aegis destroyers and has delivered 14 of the ships to the Navy a combined 61 weeks ahead of schedule.
"This procurement contract marks the continuation of a very efficient approach toward the construction of these vital ships for the Navy," said Jerry St. Pé, chief operating officer of Northrop Grumman Ship Systems. "Efficiency in building these destroyers, an area in which Ingalls has excelled, provides the means to build these ships in the numbers necessary to fully support the Navy's missions."
Northrop Grumman's Ship Systems, headquartered in Pascagoula, Miss., includes Ingalls and the Ship Systems Full Service Center, both located in Pascagoula, as well as Litton Avondale Industries, located in New Orleans, La. Ship Systems, which currently employs more than 17,000 shipbuilding professionals, primarily 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, and for commercial vessels of all types. Ship Systems has a firm business backlog exceeding $5.6 billion, in a variety of naval and commercial shipbuilding programs.
Northrop Grumman Corporation is a $15 billion, global aerospace and defense company with its worldwide headquarters in Los Angeles. Northrop Grumman provides technologically advanced, innovative products, services and solutions in defense and commercial electronics, systems integration, information technology and non-nuclear shipbuilding and systems. With 80,000 employees and operations in 44 states and 25 countries, Northrop Grumman serves U.S. and international military, government and commercial customers.
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