The Navy awarded Ingalls Shipbuilding a $130 million advanced procurement contract for the service’s next planned big deck America-class amphibious warship, according to a Pentagon contract announcement.
The contract for the yet-to-be-named LHA-10 is for “advance procurement of long lead time material and associated engineering and design activities in support of one Amphibious Assault Ship,” reads the announcement.
The ship will be the third Flight I America-class ship and will have a well deck capable of carrying two Landing Craft Air Cushion hovercraft. The first two Americas – USS America (LHA-6) and USS Tripoli (LHA-7) – were built without well decks and oriented around Marine Corps aviation assets like the F-35B Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter and the MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor.
Ingalls is currently building America-class ships Bougainville (LHA-8) and Fallujah (LHA-9). The Mississippi yard launched Bougainville in October and began fabrication of Fallujah in September after awarding a $2.4 billion full construction contract of in 2022.
The Navy originally planned to buy LHA-10 in Fiscal Year 2031 but pulled the acquisition forward to FY 2027 in the most recent budget request.
The long-lead award comes as the Navy and the Pentagon have placed a “strategic pause” on constructing the service’s second type of amphibious warship, the San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks. The Navy and Marine Corps have a requirement for 31 L-class amphibious warships.
The following is the complete contract announcement.
Huntington Ingalls Inc., Pascagoula, Mississippi, is awarded a $130,000,000 not-to-exceed undefinitized contract action for advance procurement of long lead time material and associated engineering and design activities in support of one Amphibious Assault Ship (General Purpose) Replacement (LHA(R)) Flight 1 Ship (LHA 10). Work will be performed in Beloit, Wisconsin (36%); Pascagoula, Mississippi (32%); Brunswick, Georgia (26%); and Walpole, Massachusetts (6%). Work is expected to be completed by July 2028. Fiscal 2023 shipbuilding and conversion, Navy funding in the amount of $130,000,000 will be obligated at award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. This contract is awarded based on 10 U.S. Code 3204(a)(1) only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-24-C-2467).
