USN awards $1.7 billion Portsmouth Naval Shipyard expansion contract

19th August 2021 - 13:30 GMT | by The Shephard News Team in London

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USS Virginia successfully exits dry dock at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. (Photo: USN.)

Works will improve the Maine shipyard's ability to support USN attack submarines.

US Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC), on 13 August, awarded a $1.7 billion contract for the expansion and reconfiguring of a dry-dock complex at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

The works will increase the shipyard's capacity to maintain, modernise and repair US attack submarines.

The seven-year project, part of the USN's broader Shipyard Infrastructure Optimisation Program (SIOP), will see Nebraska-based 381 Constructors build an 'addition to Dry Dock 1', new concrete floors, pump systems, caissons and other mechanical and electrical systems.

Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Commander VADM William Galinis said: 'Our naval shipyards need these major modernisation efforts to sustain our ability to maintain our nuclear submarine fleet.

'The navy needs combat-ready ships and submarines to go where they're needed, when they're needed, and these major upgrades and reconfigurations at our naval shipyards will enable the fleet to meet its future missions.'

An initial $70 million of funding has already been allocated, with the rest to be incrementally released.

SIOP is a joint NAVSEA, NAVFAC and Commander, Navy Installations Command effort to modernise infrastructure at the USN's four public shipyards: Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility, and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility.