Carney, Churchill guided-missile destroyers headed to Florida for repairs, upgrades

Aug. 11 (UPI) -- BAE Systems announced Tuesday that two guided-missile destroyers will head to its Jacksonville, Fla., shipyard for modernization work.

Under an $83.5 million contract from the U.S. Navy, the USS Carney and the USS Winston S Churchill will head to Jacksonville in September 2020 and June 2021 respectively.

The 23-year-old Carney just returned from a five-year deployment in Rota, Spain, part of an operational period that lasted six years.

It's set to undergo repair and upgrade work that will take more than a year to complete, according to BAE.

That includes drydocking, maintenance of the underwater hull, renovation of crew habitability spaces and upgrades to shipboard systems -- with an expected completion date of November 2021.

The 18-year-old Churchill's 390-day maintenance period will begin in June 2021 and include drydocking, replacement of steel structures onboard and support of the electronic systems upgrades. The work has an expected completion date of July 2022.

"The modernization work aboard the Carney and Winston S. Churchill are significant for our Jacksonville maritime team and important for the service lives and mission capability of these combatants," said Tim Spratto, general manager of BAE Systems Jacksonville Ship Repair. "The back-to-back sequencing of work is efficient and beneficial for our employees, our subcontractors and our Navy customer."

BAE said it expects to hire workers in a number of trades for the maintenance work, including welders, pipefitters, electricians and painters over the next two years.

Its contract with the Navy includes options that, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value to $211.6 million.