DDG-51 Flight III collaboration

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Navy and shipbuilders Huntington Ingalls Industry (HII) and Bath Iron Works are collaborating on detail design of the Flight III upgrade for Arleigh Burke guided missile destroyers (DDG-51). The upgrade adds an air and missile defense radar to the ship class starting in FY 2016. HII of Pascagoula, Miss., and BIW of Bath, Maine, have both responded to the Navy’s draft Request For Proposal (RFP) for FY-16 ship construction, according to DDG-51 program manager Capt. Mark Vandroff. The shipyards have taken Navy preliminary designs, broken into 17 statements of work, and are working together to develop a 3D model of the ship – including all equipment and distributed systems. The air and missile defense radar, Raytheon’s AN/SPY-6, is in engineering and manufacturing development. NAVSEA has estimated Flight III follow-on ships, under two-per-year, multi-year buys, would cost $1.75 billion each. The draft RFP is out and the Navy has responded to industry comments, but Vandroff could not discuss details including the date for release for the final RFP. (U.S. Naval Institute News 11/12/15) Gulf Coast Shipbuilding: In February 2015, HII-Pascagoula, Miss., and BIW were awarded separate $13.5 million modifications to previously awarded contract for the DDG-51 Class Flight III upgrade design services to replace the SPY-1D(V) radar with the Air and Missile Defense Radar.