The Navy last Friday awarded General Dynamics’ [GD] National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) a $6.75 billion block buy contract covering eight more
John Lewis-class T-AO 205 fleet replenishment oilers.
This new fixed-price incentive contract covers detail design and construction for ships T-AO 214 to 221. These new oilers will replace the Henry J. Kaiser-class oilers (T-AO-187).
The 742-foot-long ships are operated by Military Sealift Command and provide diesel fuel, lubricating oil, jet fuel, small quantities of fresh and frozen provisions, and dry stores and potable water to ships at sea. They can provide up to 16,000 barrels of oil and jet fuel and can travel at up to 20 knots.
The total contract work is expected to be finished by January 2035. The Navy obligated $780 million at the time of award for the first in this set of oilers funded in the FY 2024 shipbuilding account.
Tom Rivers, executive director for Amphibious, Auxiliary and Sealift under Program Executive Office Ships, told reporters that two more ships are authorized to be procured in FY 2026 and the Navy plans to use a one-two-one procurement profile for the remaining ships, depending on congressional funding.
Rivers said this block buy contract saves the Navy about 6.2 percent for the cost of the ships compared to buying annually, which equates to $491 million total across all eight vessels.
Rivers also confirmed this contract includes increases in labor and material costs in the post-pandemic period. He said there are tools in place to bound the risk of future inflation and cost changes going into the 2030s, with any additional costs or benefits to pricing changes that far in the future shared by both the government and the shipbuilder.
In July, the Navy accepted delivery of the second new oiler, the USNS Harvey Milk (T-AO 206) (Defense Daily, July 13).
NASSCO is currently building the future USNS Robert F. Kennedy (T-AO 208), USNS Lucy Stone (T-AO 209) and USNS Sojourner Truth (T-AO 210).
The Navy originally awarded NASSCO a block buy contract in 2016 to design and build the first six of these oilers, T-AO 205 – T-AO 210. In 2022 it awarded a modification for two more, the future USNS Thurgood Marshall (T-AO 211) and USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg (T-AO 212), with the option for T-AO 213, included in the 2023 defense budget.
Then last year, the Navy awarded NASSCO the $736 million modification for construction of T-AO 213, with production expected to be finished by March 2028. This raised the total T-AO 205-class ship level to nine (Defense Daily, May 22, 2023).
The Navy’s FY 2023 budget request documents described procurement costs for these oilers at ranging from $679 to $795 million each.
With this latest contract, it brings the Navy’s contracts up to 17 of the planned 20 total John Lewis-class oilers.
Rivers also confirmed that with the first three oilers accepted by the Navy, the first in class USNS John Lewis (T-AO 205) has been at sea with the Navy performing operational test and evaluations with Navy warships, including refueling ships of all types off the coast of California.