Senate panel OKs $100M for fifth DDG-51 at BIW
The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense has approved $100 million in funding that will allow Bath Iron Works to begin building a fifth DDG-51 destroyer. The appropriation, approved on Sunday, restores some of the $300 million shortfall in funding resulting from the automatic federal spending cuts that took effect last June under sequestration.
Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a member of the subcommittee, told the Bangor Daily News that the Navy intends to use the $100 million appropriation to exercise its option to award a fifth Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer contract to BIW under last June’s Pentagon award that had initially provided for five destroyers to be built by Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., and four by BIW, with the option for a fifth.
The newspaper reported the $100 million funding, which was included in the National Defense Authorization Act signed by President Obama in December, will allow BIW to begin work on the hull.
Securing the fifth destroyer would not immediately affect staffing levels at the Bath shipyard, BIW spokesman Jim DeMartini told the newspaper.
Most Recent
Most Recent
Comments