General Dynamics will build two ships for the U.S. Navy under a $1.08 billion contract announced by the Defense Department.

The company's National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. subsidiary, headquartered in San Diego, will build the sixth and seventh ships in the Navy's Expeditionary Sea Base program, the Pentagon announced on Friday. The deal includes an option to build an eighth ship, which would push the contract's value to $1.63 billion.

The vessels are regarded as seagoing platforms used across a broad range of military operations supporting multiple operational phases.

"ESBs have proven to be affordable and flexible," Kevin Graney, president of General Dynamics NASSCO, said in a press release. "As the fleet has gained experience with the platform, we have worked with the Navy and Marines to develop even more capabilities and mission sets."

Acting as a mobile sea base, the ships, originally called Mobile Landing Platform Afloat Forward Staging Bases, are part of the critical access infrastructure to support deployment of forces and supplies. Their design is modeled after Alaska-class crude oil carriers, another General Dynamics NASSCO product.

The first two ships in the program were started in 2011. The USNS Montford Point was launched in 2012, and the USNS John Glenn was launched in 2013.

The contract announced on Friday is a fixed-price-incentive modification to a prior contract. Most of the work will be performed in San Diego, with January 2025 targeted as the completion date.

Fast transit ship USNS Puerto Rico completes sea trials
Washington (UPI) Aug 26, 2019 - The U.S. Navy's Expeditionary Fast Transport ship USNS Puerto Rico finished its first integrated sea trials after two days in the Gulf of Mexico.

The ship, designated EPF 11, completed its trials on August 22, and then returned to the Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, Ala., where it was built, the Naval Sea Systems Command announced on Friday.

Integrated trials combine builder's and acceptance trials, allowing a demonstration of the ship's operational capability and mission readiness to the Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey.

"The EPF program continues to be an example of stable and successful serial ship production," Capt. Scot Searles, Strategic and Theater Sealift program manager, Program Executive Office Ships, said in a press release. "I look forward to seeing EPF 11 deliver in the fall and expand the operational flexibility available to our combatant commanders."

The USNS Puerto Rico is a non-combatant vessel designed to operate in shallow-draft ports and waterways.

The Spearhead-class of EPF ships specializes in versatility, with operational flexibility for a wide range of activities including maneuver and sustainment, relief operations in small or damaged ports, flexible logistics support, and rapid transport. The ships are capable of carrying vehicles including a fully combat-loaded Abrams Main Battle Tank.

The Puerto Rico is the 11th Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport and after its commissioning will be operated by the Military Sealift Command.

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GenDyn nabs $64.8M contract to outfit British Dreadnought subs
Washington (UPI) Aug 23, 2019
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