Litton awarded Aegis destroyer contract and option worth almost $1 billion

Business Wire, June 21, 1996

WOODLAND HILLS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 21, 1996--Litton's Ingalls Shipbuilding division, Pascagoula, Miss., has been awarded a U.S. Navy shipbuilding contract and option valued at nearly $1 billion.

Ingalls received a $329.5 million contract from the government's current fiscal year funding for construction of the 15th Ingalls-built DDG-51 class Aegis guided missile destroyer. The contract includes an option for two additional Aegis destroyers to be ordered by the Navy following Congressional authorization and appropriation in fiscal year 1997, which starts Oct. 1.

The contract award, not including the option, increases Ingalls' business backlog to approximately $3.6 billion, involving the construction of 10 major U.S. Navy surface warships.

The award continues an allocation plan begun by the Navy in 1994, in which Aegis destroyers procured by the Navy are shared between Ingalls and Bath Iron Works in Maine.

The Navy now has ordered 34 Aegis destroyers, including 15 from Ingalls. Eight Ingalls-built ships of the class are in the fleet, with one more vessel to be delivered later this year. The Aegis destroyer program is planned to ultimately include 57 ships.

Aegis destroyers are the Navy's major ongoing shipbuilding program, and will provide primary protection for the Navy's battle forces well into the 21st century.

The 505-foot, 8,600-ton ships are equipped with a computer-controlled Aegis combat system utilizing an advanced electronically scanned radar that can search in all directions simultaneously. The system is able to detect, track and engage hundreds of aircraft and missiles while continuously watching for new targets from wavetop to the stratosphere.

The ships are powered by four gas turbine jet engines that can drive the vessels to speeds in excess of 30 knots.

Aegis destroyers mount a below-deck vertical missile launching system capable of firing a combination of up to 90 Standard surface-to-air, Tomahawk surface-to-surface and antisubmarine missiles.

Additionally, the vessels mount eight Harpoon antiship missile launchers, torpedo tubes, two Phalanx close-in weapon systems and a five-inch deck gun. The ships are also equipped with an antisubmarine warfare system, a bow-mounted sonar and a towed sonar array. The destroyers also mount an antisubmarine warfare control system, with landing and replenishment facilities for an SH-60B sub-fighting helicopter.

Litton is a leader in worldwide technology markets for advanced electronic, defense and information systems, and a major designer and builder of surface combatant ships for the U.S. Navy and allied nations.

CONTACT: Litton Industries, Woodland Hills

Robert Knapp, 818/598-5907 (office)

805/496-2453 (home)