Navy awards BAE Jacksonville contract for modernization of two destroyers

USS Carney (DDG 64) [Photo: BAE Systems]

BAE Systems has won an $83.5 million U.S. Navy contract to modernize the guided-missile destroyers USS Carney (DDG 64) and USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81).

The modernization work will be performed sequentially by the company’s shipyard in Jacksonville. The contracts include options that, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value to $211.6 million.

The USS Carney will be first in the shipyard, arriving in September 2020. The 23-year-old ship just returned from a six-year operational period in Rota, Spain, and will undergo extensive repair and upgrade work that will take more than 400 days to complete. The shipyard will drydock the ship and perform maintenance of the underwater hull, renovation of crew habitability spaces and upgrades to shipboard systems. The modernization is scheduled to be completed in November 2021.

The Winston S. Churchill will undergo a 390-day maintenance period when the ship arrives in June 2021. The shipyard’s work on the 18-year-old ship will include drydocking, replacement of steel structures onboard and support of the electronic systems upgrades. The modernization of the Winston S. Churchill is scheduled to be completed in July 2022.

“The modernization work aboard the Carney and Winston S. Churchill is significant for our Jacksonville maritime team and important for the service lives and mission capability of these combatants,” said Tim Spratto, general manager of BAE Systems Jacksonville Ship Repair. “The back-to-back sequencing of work is efficient and beneficial for our employees, our subcontractors and our Navy customer.”

BAE Systems’ Jacksonville shipyard has posted jobs and is expecting to hire workers in a number of trades, including welders, pipefitters, electricians, and painters, over the next two years to work on the two destroyers and for its ongoing repair and modernization work on other ships. The award of these two ships will also provide work for its subcontractor partners and third-party vendors in the port.

Commissioned in 1996, the USS Carney is named after Admiral Robert Carney, who served as chief of naval operations during the Eisenhower administration. The USS Winston S. Churchill is, of course, named after the former British prime minister and was commissioned in 2001.