PASCAGOULA, Miss., Oct. 8, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- United States Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus toured Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE:NOC) Shipbuilding sector's shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., today.
A photo accompanying this release is available at http://media.globenewswire.com/noc/
"The most impressive thing here is the quality of the workforce," Secretary Mabus said. "And the ships, these platforms - LHDs, LPDs and DDGs - are some of the most crucial platforms the Navy has. They allow the Navy to do amazingly flexible things like special forces operations, missile work and humanitarian assistance."
As part of the visit, Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding briefed Secretary Mabus on its current work and capabilities across all of the company's Gulf Coast facilities. He also toured various ships under construction, including the Aegis-guided missile destroyer Gravely (DDG 107), the amphibious transport dock ship San Diego (LPD 22), and the U.S. Coast Guard National Security Cutter Waesche (WMSL 751). Secretary Mabus met with shipbuilders and concluded his tour with a stop at Dewey (DDG 105), an Aegis destroyer delivered to the Navy on August 17. DDG 105 is the third ship delivered of four in 2009 by Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding - Gulf Coast.
"One of my focuses is to make sure that we build enough ships and that we have the ships to be a global Navy," Secretary Mabus said. "Because no matter how good the capability of each ship, they can't be in two places at one time."
Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding - Gulf Coast facilities' current work includes contracts to build DDG 51-class Aegis destroyers, LPD 17-class amphibious transport dock ships, U.S. Coast Guard National Security cutters and the U.S. Navy's newest amphibious assault ship, America (LHA 6). Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding - Gulf Coast has built and delivered all five USS Tarawa (LHA 1) class ships, as well as all eight USS Wasp (LHD 1) class ships, including Makin Island (LHD 8) in May. LHA 6 will be an aviation-maximized ship for U.S. Marine expeditionary warfare replacing LHA 1.
In addition to construction of ships, the company's Gulfport facility specializes in composite shipbuilding and is currently building the deckhouse for the U.S. Navy DDG 1000 class of surface combatants as well as the composite masts for the LPD 17 class.
Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide.
