HII wins LHA-9; Austal disappointed

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) Pascagoula, Miss., is awarded an $187,469,732 not-to-exceed undefinitized contract action for long lead time material and associated engineering and design activities in support of one Amphibious Assault Ship Replacement (LHA(R)) Flight 1 Ship and LHA 9. Work will be performed in Pascagoula (33%); Beloit, Wis. (23%); Brunswick, Ga. (21%); King of Prussia (11%) and York, Pa., (10%); Brampton, Ontario, Canada (1%); and Hanrahan, La. (1%). Work to be performed is the procurement of long lead time material for LHA 9, the fourth LHA (R) America Class and the second LHA(R) Flight 1 ship. Work is expected to be complete by February 2024. FY 2019 Navy shipbuilding and conversion funding in the amount of $187,469,732 will be obligated at award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD 04/30/20)

UP TO 10 FFG(X)s: Marinette (Wis.) Marine Corp. is awarded a $795,116,483 fixed-price incentive (firm target) contract for detail design and construction (DD&C) of the FFG(X) class of guided-missile frigates, with additional firm-fixed-price and cost reimbursement line items. The contract with options will provide for the delivery of up to 10 FFG(X) ships, post-delivery availability support, engineering and class services, crew familiarization, training equipment and provisioned item orders. If all options are exercised, the cumulative value of this contract will be $5,576,105,441. Work will be performed at multiple locations, including Marinette (52%); Boston (10%); Crozet, Va. (8%); New Orleans (7%); New York City (6%); Washington, D.C. (6%), Sturgeon Bay, Wis. (3%), Prussia, Pa. (3%), Minneapolis (2%); Cincinnati (1%); Atlanta (1%); and Chicago (1%). The base contract includes the DD&C of the first FFG(X) ship and separately priced options for nine additional ships. The FFG(X) will have multi-mission capability to conduct air warfare, anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare, and electronic warfare and information operations. FFG(X) represents the evolution of the Navy's small surface combatant, with increased lethality, survivability and improved capability to support the National Defense Strategy across the full range of military operations in the current security environment. Work is expected to be complete by May 2035, if all options are exercised. FY 2020 Navy shipbuilding and conversion funding in the amount of $795,116,483 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website and four offers were received. The Navy conducted this competition using a tradeoff process to determine the proposal representing the best value, based on the evaluation of non-price factors in conjunction with price. The Navy made the best value determination by considering the relative importance of evaluation factors as set forth in the solicitation, where the non-price factors of design and design maturity and objective performance to achieve war-fighting capability were approximately equal and each more important than remaining factors. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD 04/30/20)

UPDATE/Gulf Coast Note: Alabama-based shipbuilder Austal USA and HII-Pascagoula missed out on FFG(X) contract. Fincantieri, an Italian shipbuilder out of Wisconsin, was the winner. "Despite our extreme disappointment … we have a portfolio of other opportunities that we continue to pursue,” Austal USA President Craig Perciavalle told AL.com. “In addition to our backlog of EPF and LCS work that extends through 2024 including EPF variants and unmanned surface vessels. We have great facilities and an even greater workforce and we are committed to continuing to build highly capable and cost effective ships for the U.S. Navy.” Fincantieri’s was considered by military leaders as offering the best value, according to reports. Austal had been a frontrunner for the contract given its low cost, high performance approach to shipbuilding, but there were concerns about using aluminum on a ship meant for combat, noted reports. Austal uses aluminum to build its Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) and Expeditionary Fast Transports (EFT), but neither are designed for heavy sea-going combat. Any of the other bidders can contest the decision. (Source: AL.com 05/01/20)