BATH, Maine — A proposed $1.1 trillion “omnibus” spending deal announced Wednesday by members of Congress includes $1 billion in funding for an additional Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King said Wednesday.
According to a joint release issued by the senators, the additional destroyer would “likely” be built at Bath Iron Works.
Congress has not yet voted on the omnibus defense bill, which, if approved, would fund $1 billion of the approximately $1.75 billion to $1.8 billion cost of the new destroyer, Collins’ spokeswoman Annie Clark said Wednesday night.
The additional $750 million to $1 billion would then have to be authorized and appropriated by Congress before the Navy could issue a contract for the ship.
“This is a very positive step, and a great down payment on the ship, but it’s not an end stop,” Clark said.
Staff for Collins and King couldn’t confirm Wednesday whether Maine’s U.S. senators had been assured by the Navy that it would award the additional destroyer to BIW.
On Dec. 4, after the Department of Defense announced it would award Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, a $200 million contract to build an additional amphibious transport vessel for the Navy, Defense News reported that a Navy acquisitions official confirmed the additional destroyer would be awarded to BIW under the terms of a 2002 memorandum of understanding among the Navy, BIW and Northrop Grumman, then the lead yard for the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship ( LPD-17).
“Consistent with the ‘swap agreement,’ the Navy will award BIW a corresponding DDG-51 ship,” Capt. Thurraya Kent, spokeswoman for the Navy’s acquisition directorate, told Defense News. “This ship would be in addition to the currently contracted multiyear ships, subject to congressional authorization and appropriation.”
The 2002 memorandum of understanding transferred four LPD-17s scheduled to be built at BIW to Northrop Grumman-owned Ingalls and Avondale shipyards in exchange for four DDG-51 destroyers contracted to Northrop Grumman — which in 2011 spun off its shipbuilding business into Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. Huntington Ingalls is slated to build 11 LPD-17s.
The memorandum of understanding states that a fourth DDG-51 class destroyer “or equivalent workload” would be awarded to the Maine shipyard preceding any award of a 12th amphibious transport vessel.
According to Wednesday’s release, Collins requested the funding toward the additional DDG-51 “to help meet combatant commander requirements for destroyers across the globe.”