The U.S. Navy is scheduled to receive the first Flight II variant of its San Antonio-class amphibious platform dock ship (LPD) in the second quarter of fiscal 2025, a Navy official said, and the type is in serial production with the recent contract award of the second Flight II ship.

Reprinted with permission of Seapower, the official publication of the Navy League of the United States.

Huntington Ingalls Industries CEO Mike Petters, whose company builds military ships, discusses operating as a critical industry amid coronavirus, company earnings, and working with the Navy to ensure small business partners can continue to operate.

A top U.S. Navy official said acquisition and sustainment could emerge stronger, having withstood disruptions during the COVID-19 crisis. Speaking May 4 as part of a Navy League webinar sponsored by IBM for small businesses in the defense industry, James F. Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, said he views the pandemic as a crucible, where there will be some delays in production and maintenance, but also as an opportunity to strengthen the system.

Huntington Ingalls Industries has been awarded a potential $187.5M contract by the U.S. Navy for design and engineering of one America-class amphibious warfare vessel.

Navy leaders and defense industry execs are worried about the effect the COVID-19 pandemic is having on their supply chains, potentially interrupting critical repair and refit availabilities that could have knock-on effects on deployment schedules.

The federal contracting community has gotten used to seeing major upticks in contract outlays in the last couple months of the fiscal year. But for the Department of the Navy, April’s numbers rivaled those figures: Contract obligations this month are already up 30% compared to the same period a year ago, and almost double the figures from April 2018.

The most serious impacts to the Defense Department from COVID-19-related industrial closures domestically are in the aviation supply chain, shipbuilding and small space launch, the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment said.

Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition James Geurts said the Navy this fiscal year has already awarded $88.52 billion in acquisition contracts, compared to $66.3 billion at the same time last year – a 32-percent acceleration in awarding work, and with 5 percent fewer contracting actions.

James F. Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, speaking during an April 15 webcast of the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space: Virtual Edition, said the Navy and the defense industry are working to keep on task and be in a position to accelerate “out of the crisis.”

Mike Petters, CEO of Huntington Ingalls, discusses the shipbuilding supply chain and the company’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic on CNBC.

As part of its ongoing effort to bolster the defense industrial base, the Pentagon has issued two new pieces of guidance — one focused on workers, and one focused on prototype contracts.