Just the initial planning for repairing and restoring the USS Fitzgerald will cost $29 million and plans will be completed at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula before the wounded ship arrives there in December.
Ingalls was awarded a $29,378,128 cost-plus-fixed fee contract for the initial planning of repairs and restoration of the guided-missle destroyer that was damaged in August in a collision off the coast of Japan. In this initial planning and preparation phase, the U.S. will include modernization of the ship.
Planning is expected to be completed by Dec. 31 and The Naval Sea Systems Command at Washington, D.C., is the contracting agency.
The said in a press release that the guided-missile destroyer will change homeport from Yokosuka, Japan, to Pascagoula effective Dec. 15. Patriot Shipping, based in Houston, will heavy-lift the ship from Japan to Pascagoula, and a contract modification for the full restoration and modernization scope is anticipated in December.
Coast residents will see the ship docked at Ingalls for quite some time. According to a report in Maritime Herald, Secretary of the Richard Spencer said repairs to the USS Fitzgerald will take more than a year to complete. The report said Naval analysts believe repairs to the ship could top $500 million.
Ingalls was chosen to repair the ship, the said, because the shipyard is the only Arleigh Burke-class shipbuilder with the available capacity “to restore USS Fitzgerald to full operational status in the shortest period of time with minimal disruption to ongoing repair and new construction work.”
Mary Perez: 228-896-2354, @MaryPerezSH
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