The Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Helena returns to its homeport at Naval Station Norfolk from a regularly scheduled deployment on May 15. Photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Monique K. Meeks/U.S. Navy
Oct. 16 (UPI) -- Navy officials have announced that Huntington Ingalls Inc. has been awarded a modified contract worth more than $65 million to modernize the USS Helena, a Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine on dry-dock restriction.
The contract awarded to Huntington Ingalls Inc., announced Friday by the Department of Defense, comes on the heels of a previous contract that enabled the Newport News, Va., company to overhaul the USS Helena with upgrades while the submarine was in dry-docking selected restriction.
The previous contract awarded Huntington Ingalls $17.5 million with a financial budget cap of $18 million, according to the Department of the Navy.
The modifications to the USS Helena come just four months after its 140 member crew returned from deployment to their home port of Naval Stations Norfolk in Virginia. Navy officials told reporters that the submarine and crew traveled more than 35,000 nautical miles, which is the equivalent of 40,277 miles on land.
The USS Helena docks at naval ports in Haakonsvern, Norway, Faslane, Scotland, and Brest, France.
This is the second overhaul for the Los Angeles class submarine, which previously underwent modifications in 2009 while homeported in San Diego. The 2009 work was conducted at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and was then transferred to Naval Station Norfolk, the largest Navy base in the world.
Work on the USS Helena will occur in Newport News, Va., and is expected to be completed by April 2018.
Pentagon officials said fiscal 2018 operations and maintenance funds allocated to the Department of the Navy in the amount of $62.7 million will be obligated to Huntington Ingalls, expiring at the end of the current fiscal year.
