USS Helena undergoes another bout of repair and modernisation
Work on Los Angeles-class submarine to be completed by April 2021.
Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) is embarking on another repair, maintenance and upgrade project for USS Helena, the DoD announced on 2 February.
The Newport News Shipbuilding division of HII will complete the $12.5 million contract dry-docking selected restricted availability work by April 2021.
Previously, in September 2019, HII was awarded a $38 million contract to continue repair, maintenance, upgrades and modernisation efforts on the Los Angeles-class nuclear attack submarine (SSN), which was commissioned in 1987.
Shephard Defence Insight notes that the USN in 2019 began studying whether to extend the service life of the some Los Angeles-class boats by a further 12 years, bringing their expected service life to 45 years. This is to ease the projected shortfall in the overall SSN fleet.
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