Pacific Ship Repair contracted for PSA on USS Ralph Johnson

April 26 (UPI) -- Pacific Ship Repair and Fabrication has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Navy for post shakedown availability services on the new USS Ralph Johnson.

The deal, announced Wednesday by the Department of Defense, is valued at more than $17.2 million under the terms of a cost-plus-award-fee contract.

The contract from Naval Sea Systems Command enables Pacific Ship Repair and Fabrication to accomplish post shakedown availability on the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson, the Defense Department said.

Post shakedown availability or PSA is an shipbuilding industry term used to describe work assigned to a contract that corrects deficiencies found during the shakedown cruise, which is when test trials on the ship are conducted at sea in order to spotlight unknown discrepancies.

PSA contracts can also enable a shipbuilder to complete improvements on the vessel.

The USS Ralph Johnson was commissioned on March 23 in Charleston, S.C. It is the second Arleigh Burke-class vessel built since the Navy started building the Burke-class again in 2008.

The contract with Pacific Ship Repair and Fabrication includes built-in options that could see the cumulative value of the contract surge to more than $20.7 million if exercised by the Pentagon.

Work on the contract will occur in Everett, Wash., and is expected to be complete in February 2019.

The total amount of the contract without options will be obligated to Pacific Ship Repair and Fabrication at time of award -- the funds will be allocated from Navy fiscal 2018 shipbuilding and conversion and Navy fiscal 2011 shipbuilding and conversion accounts.

The obligated funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year in September.