Contract: Northrop, $20.9M

Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Bethpage, N.Y., is being awarded a $20,917,239 modification under previously awarded contract (N00024-06-C-6311) to provide integration services for mission packages that will deploy from and integrate with the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). The Navy's plan is to use continuous evaluation of system maturity through a disciplined system engineering framework to improve mission capability in identified mission areas. LCS mission packages will be optimized for flexibility in the littorals. Work will be performed in Bethpage (44 percent); Oxnard, Calif., (16 percent); Washington, D.C., (14 percent); Panama City, Fla., (10 percent); Dahlgren, Va., (8 percent); San Diego, Calif., (4 percent); Hollywood, Md., (2 percent); Andover, Mass., (1 percent); and Middletown, R.I., (1 percent), and is expected to be completed by January 2015. Fiscal 2014 and 2015 operations and maintenance (Navy); fiscal 2014 and 2015 research, development, test and evaluation; and fiscal 2015 other procurement (Navy) funding in the amount of $20,917,239 will be obligated at time of award. Contract funds in the amount of $5,611,140 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 05/30/14)

Halter delivers Bouchard ATB

South Mississippi’s VT Halter Marine has delivered an ocean-going articulated tug barge (ATB) to Bouchard Transportation, a 96-year-old New York state total service oil barging company. The 80,000 barrel-holding Denise A. Bouchard tug will join the firm’s existing ATBs as part of its fleet expansion strategy. VT Halter Marine began construction of the 112-foot Bouchard tug in March 2013 and laid its keel two months later at its Moss Point Marine facility in Escatawpa, Miss. The vessel is the sister ship of the Evening Star, which was delivered in October 2012. (Source: Ship Technology, 05/30/14)

Vessels for Egypt hitch a ride

PENSACOLA, Fla. -- Two fast missile craft built in Mississippi for the Egyptian Navy were loaded onto a civilian transport ship in Pensacola Bay Sunday. The publication Defense News reports that the crafts' officers have been training at NAS Pensacola since July 2013. (Source: Pensacola News Journal, 05/25/14) VT Halter Marine of Pascagoula, Miss., in 2011 received a four-craft contract valued at $807 million to build the vessels. A story in the Mississippi Press at that time said the first vessel would be delivered in the fourth-quarter of 2012. The craft perform coastal patrol, surveillance, interdiction, surface strike and naval battle group support. Egypt planned to use the vessels to patrol its coastal waterways of the Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Suez Canal.

Admiral gets new assignment

The Navy today announced today that Rear Adm. (lower half) Brian B. Brown, selected for promotion to rear admiral, will be assigned as deputy commander, Joint Functional Component Command Space, U.S. Strategic Command, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Brown is currently serving as commander, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, Stennis Space Center, Miss. (Source: DoD, 05/16/14)

HII to enter energy field

Huntington Ingalls Industries of Newport News, Va., parent of Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., announced today that it entered an agreement to acquire UniversalPegasus International Holdings, a provider of engineering and project management services to the domestic and international energy markets. The transaction, subject to customary reviews, is expected to close in June. UPI has some 1,500 employees and has provided a broad range of engineering and project management services to the energy industry for over 50 years. (Source: Huntington Ingalls, 05/16/14)

Contract: Ingalls, $12.2M

Huntington Ingalls Inc., Pascagoula, Miss., is being awarded a $12,168,588 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-12-C-2312) to exercise options for DDG 51 class follow yard services (FYS). The FYS provides necessary engineering, technical, material procurement and production support; configuration; class flight upgrades and new technology support; data and logistics management; lessons learned analysis; post-delivery tests and trials; post-shakedown availability support; reliability and maintainability; system safety program support; material and fleet turnover support; shipyard engineering team; turnkey; crew indoctrination, design tool/design standardization, detail design development, and other technical and engineering analyses for the purpose of supporting DDG 51 class ship construction and tests and trials. Work will be performed in Pascagoula (97 percent) and Washington, D.C. (3 percent), and is expected to be completed by May 2015. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 05/13/14)

PC to award LCS computers pact

Panama City, Fla., Naval Surface Warfare Center intends to award a sole source firm fixed-price commercial order to DY4 Inc., (DBA) Curtiss Wright Controls Defense Solutions of Ashburn, Va., to acquire 36 SVME-181-100 single board computers. These computers have been specifically evaluated and tested against Naval Sea Systems Command technical requirements for Littoral Combat Ships' multi-vehicle control system. (Source: FedBizOps, 05/08/14) Panama City NSWC also produces the plug-in, mine-countermeasures warfare package for LCS. Austal USA in Mobile, Ala., builds one of the two variants of LCS for the Navy.

Ingalls launches WMSL 754

PASCAGOULA, Miss. -- Ingalls Shipbuilding launched the U.S. Coast Guard National Security Cutter James (WMSL 754) on Saturday. It's the company's fifth NSC. Ingalls' launch process moves the ship on rail cars over to the company's drydock. The dock is moved away from the pier and then flooded to float the ship. Tugs then guide the ship to its berthing area where it will complete construction. Ingalls has delivered the first three NSCs and has three more under construction, including James. Hamilton (WMSL 753) will undergo sea trials this summer and is expected to deliver later this year. Ingalls' sixth NSC, Munro (WMSL 755), began construction late last year and will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2015. The seventh ship, Kimball (WMSL 756), is scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 2018. The Legend-class ships are 418 feet long and have a top speed of 28 knots, a range of 12,000 miles, an endurance of 60 days and a crew of 110. (Source: Ingalls Shipbuilding, Mississippi Press, 05/06/14)

NOLA to host navigation session

The Coast Guard, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Army Corps of Engineers will hold 2014 discussions on navigational aid technology and how it will affect the future of America's waterways. New Orleans will host one of those Future of Navigation-21st Century Waterways sessions on May 7 at 1350 Port of New Orleans Place. The venues are for open communications between federal agencies and U.S. Maritime Transportation System stakeholders to discuss joint federal initiatives to use technology to support a safe, efficient, secure and environmentally-sound marine transport system. The public listening sessions are to provide the maritime communities and waterways stakeholders with opportunities to express emerging needs for navigational information and service systems necessary to improve the f transiting of the nation's waterways. For additional information contact Lt. Torrey Jacobsen at (202) 372-1543. (Source: Coast Guard, 05/01/14)

Austal-built JHSV completes ops

The Navy's first-in-class Joint High Speed Vessel, USNS Spearhead (JHSV 1), left the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations Friday after more than three months deployed within the European and African theaters. Spearhead embarked a Marine squad for a crisis response exercise off the coast of Liberia; conducted maritime security operations, two multinational maritime exercises - Saharan Express and Obangame Express – and bi-lateral maritime law enforcement operation. The crew also delivered 46 pallets of humanitarian items, 22.5 tons, donated by private companies to non-governmental organizations as part of the U.S. Navy's Project Handclasp in Lagos, Nigeria. (Source: Navy News Service, 05/03/14) Gulf Coast note: Spearhead was delivered by Austal USA, Mobile, Ala., to the Navy in December 2012. It has contracted to build nine JHSVs. Previous: JHSV joins exercise; JHSV 1 on maiden deployment

LCS supporter Work confirmed

Retired Marine Colonel, and Littoral Combat Ship supporter, Robert Work was confirmed by the Senate on April 30 as the new deputy secretary of defense. That places the 27-year military veteran as the Defense Department’s front man to battle with Congress over military pay, Tricare fees, weapons systems and the rebalance of forces. The 61-year-old Work, a former Navy undersecretary who clashed in confirmation hearings with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., over support for the LCS, will also be closely watched by the defense industry. After retiring from the Marines, Work became a senior fellow for maritime affairs and later VP for strategic studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He was Navy undersecretary from 2009-13. (Source: Military.com, 05/01/14) Gulf Coast note: Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, Ala., builds one of the two Littoral Combat Ship variants.