NEWPORT NEWS, Va., Feb. 4, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) was awarded a $224 million modification to an existing contract today for advanced planning of the refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73). The work will be performed at the company's Newport News Shipbuilding division.
The contract funds continued planning work for the RCOH as well as the procurement of long-lead materials, including items such as pumps, breakers, valves and steel to support fabrication of structural units.
"The company has worked closely with our Navy partners, performing ship checks and selected planning tasks associated with the defueling of the ship," said Chris Miner, Newport News Shipbuilding's vice president, in-service aircraft carrier programs. "This contract award allows us to move beyond defueling and plan all the work associated with a full RCOH, which underscores the Navy's continued commitment to ensuring this great national asset remains in the fleet and operational for another 25 years."
Newport News has completed RCOH work on the first four Nimitz-class ships, and work on the fifth ship, USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), is about 60 percent complete and on track to deliver in the fourth quarter of 2016.

Huntington Ingalls Industries was awarded a $224 million modification to an existing contract for the advanced planning of the refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73). The ship, which was built at HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding division and commissioned in 1992, is currently forward-deployed to Yokosuka, Japan. U.S. Navy photo