Huntington Ingalls contracted for Fitzgerald repairs

Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Huntington Ingalls has been awarded a modified contract for emergent repair and restoration on the U.S. Navy's USS Fitzgerald, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer that crashed into a Philippine cargo ship in June.

The deal, announced Friday by the Department of Defense, is worth $63 million under a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, which provides cost reimbursement for potential cost overrun fees. Generally, the reimbursement price is negotiated at the inception of the contract.

The Pentagon said the contract will provide for "initial collision ripout phase of an availability which will include a combination of maintenance, modernization, and collision repair of USS Fitzgerald."

The Navy has obligated $31.5 million in fiscal 2018 operations and maintenance funds to Huntington Ingalls at time of award, and the full $63 million of the contract will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.

In November, investigators with the Navy concluded that the Fitzgerald collision with the cargo ship, which claimed the lives of seven U.S. sailors, was "avoidable" and the result of multiple human errors.

"Many of the decisions made that led to this incident were the result of poor judgment and decision making of the commanding officer," the report said. "That said, no single person bears full responsibility for this incident. The crew was unprepared for the situation in which they found themselves through a lack of preparation, ineffective command and control, and deficiencies in training and preparations for navigation."

Work on the contract will occur in Pascagoula, Miss., and is expected to be completed by September 2018.