NEWPORT NEWS, Va., May 13 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy authorized a contract modification with Northrop Grumman that funds ongoing design and planning for the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier.
U.S. defense company Northrop Grumman is working as the prime contractor on the Navy's USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) nuclear-powered aircraft carrier program.
Northrop Grumman said Wednesday the Navy modified its contract for the carrier program that authorizes the company to increase its design, planning and system integration support work.
"Now that the design is in the three-dimensional product model our effort is focused on the production of instructions for the shops and ship assembly," Mike Shawcross, Northrop Grumman aircraft carrier construction program vice president, said in a statement.
The cost plus fixed fee engineering and design contract modification is worth $186.6 million.
The next-generation Ford class of aircraft carriers includes improvements on the flight deck, weapons handling systems and electrical power generation capacity among other advances over the Navy's current fleet of nuclear-powered carriers.
