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July 27, 2011

BIW secures deal for two destroyers

By The Mainebiz News Staff

Bath Iron Works and the U.S. Navy have reached an agreement on contracts for the next two ships in the DDG 1000 destroyer program.

U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe yesterday announced in separate press releases that the Navy will award General Dynamics, BIW's parent company, contracts for the second and third DDG 1000 ships. BIW is currently building the first ship in the line, and though it received some funding for advance work on DDG 1001 and DDG 1002, the company had been negotiating with the Navy for months for full contracts. Earlier this month, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus wrote in a letter to U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree that the Navy and BIW were having trouble reaching an agreement over pricing of the destroyers. The contracts for the three DDG 1000 ships will total more than $3 billion, according to Sen. Collins.

Both senators said the contracts will protect jobs at the Bath shipyard. In January, about 130 people working on the DDG 1000 destroyer program were laid off, followed by another round of 250 layoffs in the program in June. The shipyard employs about 5,300 people.

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