Navy to delay $4 billion contract for next carrier

http://hamptonroads.com/2013/09/navy-delay-4-billion-contract-next-carrier

Navy to delay $4 billion contract for next carrier
By Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg News
© September 14, 2013

WASHINGTON

The Navy will delay by as much as a year awarding Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. a contract for at least $4 billion to start construction on the second vessel in a new class of aircraft carriers, according to U.S. officials.

Award of the "detail design and construction" contract for the John F. Kennedy, designated CVN-79, was planned for this month until recently, said the officials, who asked not to be identified because the postponement hasn't been announced.

The ship would be built at Huntington Ingalls' Newport News Shipbuilding facility, the only place in the country that builds nuclear-powered carriers.

The Navy is grappling in a time of budget cuts with how to pay for a shipbuilding plan that anticipates spending$43 billion for three carriers in the new class, as well as $34 billion for 52 littoral combat ships and the costs, not yet estimated, for a 12-vessel nuclear submarine fleet to replace the Ohio-class subs.



unhappycamper comment: You folks are delusional if you think that we can buy three of these things for only $43 billion dollars. The USS Gerald R Ford will come in around $40 billion.....