General Dynamics NASSCO, a shipbuilding subsidiary of the defense manufacturing group, has a new U.S. Navy contract to build up to eight fuel tankers, an order that could be worth more than $6.7 billion when fully enacted. The “block-buy contract” follows an initial 2016 award to NASSCO for six of the John Lewis-class fleet oilers (T-AO 211 – 213), designed to transfer fuel to U.S. Navy ships at sea.
Three more vessels were added to the order in 2022.
Each of the 742-feet T-AO vessels moves at up to 20 knots and carries 162,000 barrels of diesel fuel, jet fuel, and lubricating oil, fresh and frozen provisions, stores, potable water, dry cargo, and provides aviation capability while traveling at speeds up to 20 knots.
The tenth ship of the series, and the first that will be built under the new contract, has a unit value of $780 million.
The first ship of the series, USNS John Lewis (T-AO 205), was delivered to the U.S. Navy in July 2022. Another s T-AO hip will be christened and launched later this week – and NASSCO has two more ships under construction now.
New construction for a fifth ship will start in October 2024.
“We are pleased to continue building these ships, with seventeen of the Navy’s twenty-ship program of record now on contract. This will make the T-AO program the longest Navy production series in NASSCO history,” stated Dave Carver, president of General Dynamics NASSCO.
