HII awarded $9.9M for planning on USS Boise overhaul

Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Huntington Ingalls Industries' Newport News Shipbuilding division has been awarded a contract for planning for the engineered overhaul of the USS Boise.

The $9.9 million contract, awarded Wednesday by the Department of Defense, comes under a cost-plus-fixed-fee, level-of-effort modification to a previous contract to cover "new work planning" in support of the overhaul.

Work on the contract will be performed in Newport news, Va., and is expected to be finished by February 2019, following the completion of regular maintenance work. The vessel will be moved to dry dock in January 2019 for the extended engineering overhaul, which includes system upgrades.

The Boise, a Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered fast attack submarine, was commissioned in 1992. The vessel's last deployment was in 2015, and it has not been dive certified since 2017 as it sat, waiting for room at Norfolk Naval Shipyard for maintenance to start.

The submarine arrived at Newport News in June for planned maintenance and repair, and then is expected to be moved to a dry dock in January to start the 25-month-long extended overhaul HII has been contracted to plan.

"Submarine fleet support work represents a significant increase in our workload and provides a critical balance for public and private shipyards," Bill Smith, Newport News' vice president of fleet support programs, said in a press release. "We have been preparing for Boise's availability and looking forward to returning the submarine back to the fleet."