Huntington Ingalls awarded $1.5 billion Navy contract

JULY 28, 2012—The day before christening the ninth Landing Platform Dock ship in the San Antonio Class, Huntington Ingalls Inc., Pascagoula, MS, was awarded a $1.514 billion fixed-price-incentive modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-06-C-2222) for the procurement of the detail design and construction of Landing Platform Dock ship (LPD 27).

Huntington Ingalls will build the entire San Antonio Class. The LPD 17-class ships are 684 feet long and 105 feet wide and displace about 25,000 tons. Their principal mission is to deploy the combat and support elements of Marine Expeditionary Units and Brigades.

The ships can carry up to 800 troops and have the capability of transporting and debarking air cushion (LCAC) or conventional landing crafts, augmented by helicopters or vertical take-off and landing aircraft such as the MV-22. The ships will support amphibious assault, special operations or expeditionary warfare missions through the first half of the 21st century.

The LPD-27 will be completed by June 2017.

Meanwhile, nearly 1,800 guests turned out for the christening of the Somerset (LPD 25), the ninth LPD-17, at the HII’s Avondale shipyard near New Orleans on July 28. LPD 25 is named to honor the passengers and crew members who fought 9-11 terrorists for control of United Airlines Flight 93. The plane subsequently crashed in an open field near Shanksville in Somerset County, PA, killing all aboard. Many believe the terrorists intended to crash the plane either into the Capitol or the White House. The heroic efforts of the passengers and the crew could well have saved hundreds of lives.

Additional family members of the Flight 93 heroes were in attendance, as well as several residents of Somerset County.

Mrs. Mary Jo Myers, wife of Gen. Richard Myers, U.S. Air Force (Ret.),
former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, broke the ceremonial bottle across LPD 25’s bow at the culmination of the ceremony, officially christening LPD 25 as Somerset.