BIW teams with competition, industry to begin designing Navy's next large warship

File Photo / William Hall Bath Iron Works will conduct preliminary engineering and design work for the Navy's planned DDG(X) warships. The yard's primary competitor, Huntington Ingalls, received a similar contract.

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By William Hall

Bath Iron Works will team up with its primary competitor to do preliminary design and engineering work for the Navy’s newest planned large warships, under a contract announced Friday.

BIW, which is owned by General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD), was awarded the contract for shipbuilder engineering and design analysis that will support the ultimate design for the new ship class, DDG(X), a BIW news release said. If all options are exercised, the contract would run through July 2028.

Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. (NYSE: HII) received a similar contract, according to a separate release. Values of both contracts were not disclosed for competitive reasons.

BIW and Ingalls’ Pascagoula, Miss., shipyard are the Navy’s sole builders of Arleigh Burke (DDG 51)-class guided missile destroyers, often called “the workhorses of the Navy.” In total, the two yards have launched dozens of them since the first set sail from BIW in 1988. Both General Dynamics and Ingalls are headquartered in Virginia.

The development of the DDG(X) will draw on lessons learned from the DDG 51 program as well as the Virginia-class and Columbia-class submarine programs, BIW said in its release. BIW and Ingalls were included in the Navy’s initial concept discussion of the DDG(X) last year.

“Bath Iron Works is eager to bring our cutting-edge engineering and design expertise, now applied to the DDG 51 program, to the next generation of large surface combatants,” said Bath Iron Works President Chuck Krugh.

“The opportunity to work alongside HII and our industry partners to meet the Navy’s needs for capability, schedule and cost will result in synergies that build on other extremely successful Navy construction programs.”

With about 7,000 employees, Bath Iron Works is Maine’s largest manufacturer and responsible for new construction, maintenance and modernization of surface combatants for the U.S. Navy. BIW was founded in 1884 and acquired by General Dynamics, one of the world’s largest defense contractors, in 1995. In 2021, General Dynamics reported revenue of $38.5 billion.