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Feb. 11 (UPI) -- General Dynamics was awarded a $34.3 million contract as an option for repair and alteration for the USS Carl Vinson. The renovations, part of dry-docking planned incremental availability, which includes modification and repair of ship equipment, hull and systems, is the fourth major availability of the contract, the U.S. Navy announced Friday.
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Work on the contract, which will be performed at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Bremerton, Wash., is expected to be completed by July 2020.
Navy fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funding has been obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
The ship, with 3,000 crew members, pulled into Sinclair Inlet at its new home port and venue for the revitalization last month. Its previous home port was San Diego as part of the Seventh Fleet.
Once finished, the Vinson is set to become the first aircraft carrier in the Navy to deploy with a squadron of F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters.
"We've been busy and very mission-focused," Lt. Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, Vinson spokesman, told the Kitsap Sun. "We look forward to settling into the Bremerton community and working with the shipyard to keep this warship battle-hardened and mission-ready in the years ahead."
Last year, the Vinson's deployment included participation in RIMPAC, an exercise among 25 navies, and a historic port visit to Vietnam.
In 2017, the Vinson was dispatched to the Korean Peninsula, when there was rising tensions with North Korea.
The USS Nimitz, which is the oldest aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy, also has been home ported in Bremerton.
A Ford-class carrier, CVN81, is scheduled to replace the Vinson, which is CVN70, when it is commissioned in 2030, according to the Congressional Research Service.
