DDG 1000 destroyer project progresses

The US Navy has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation a $268 million contract for continuation of detail design efforts on the Zumwalt-class destroyer, DDG 1000. “This award reinforces the Navy’s confidence in our ability to execute the program to cost and on schedule,” said Brian Cuccias, Northrop Grumman vice president of DDG 1000.

The contract funds further DDG 1000 detail design and procurement of vendor-furnished information and long-lead materials and runs through 2013. DDG 1000 is the first in a class of the US Navy’s multi-mission surface combatants tailored for land attack and littoral dominance. The ship’s mission is to provide affordable, credible, independent forward presence/deterrence and to operate as an integral part of naval, joint or combined maritime forces. DDG 1000 will provide advanced land attack capability in support of ground campaigns and will contribute naval, joint or combined battle-space dominance in littoral operations. DDG 1000 is in an advanced state of development and will influence ship design worldwide for the remainder of the century.

Work will be performed at Northrop Grumman Ship System’s Pascagoula, Miss., Gulfport, Miss. and Washington D.C. facilities.

The US Navy also awarded a similar $257 million contract to Bath Iron Works in Maine, a General Dynamics company, for the next-generation DDG 1000 “stealth” destroyer. This contract is also for the completion of detail design of the destroyer

Both Bath Iron Works and Northrop Grumman shipyards will be working on the new DDG 1000 class and it is planned that the first two ships will be built simultaneously in Maine and Mississippi.