Huntington Ingalls receives $77M contract to get started on 7th National Security Cutter

The following is the text of a press release issued by Huntington Ingalls Industries:

(PASCAGOULA, Miss.) -- Huntington Ingalls
Industries' (NYSE:HII) Ingalls Shipbuilding division today received a
$76.8 million fixed-price contract from the U.S. Coast Guard to
purchase long-lead materials for Kimball (WMSL 756), the company's
seventh National Security Cutter (NSC). Construction and delivery will
be performed at the company's Pascagoula facility.

A photo accompanying this release is available at
http://media.globenewswire.com/hii/mediagallery.html?pkgid=19327

"This advance procurement contract allows us to maintain production
line and supplier base momentum while we prepare for the ship
construction contract," said Jim French, Ingalls' NSC program manager.
"Advance procurement funding helps us procure equipment and materials
at favorable prices from our suppliers, and it keeps their production
line flowing as well. The Coast Guard continues to report their
satisfaction with these ships, and we remain focused on improving our
performance."

The advance procurement funds will be used to purchase major items for
Kimball, such as steel, the main propulsion systems, generators,
electrical switchboards and major castings.

Ingalls has delivered three NSCs, designed to replace the
378‐foot Hamilton-class High-Endurance Cutters that entered
service during the 1960s. Ingalls' fourth NSC, Hamilton (WMSL 753),
will launch later this year and be christened on Oct. 26. The keel was
recently laid on the fifth cutter, James (WMSL 754), and construction
will begin on the company's sixth cutter, Munro (WMSL 755), later this
year.

Ingalls will continue to work with Lockheed Martin, which provides the
command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance
and reconnaissance (C4ISR) capabilities.

NSCs, the flagship of the Coast Guard's cutter fleet, are 418 feet long
with a 54-foot beam and displace 4,500 tons with a full load. They have
a top speed of 28 knots, a range of 12,000 miles, an endurance of 60
days and a crew of 110.

The Legend-class NSC is capable of meeting all maritime security
mission needs required of the High-Endurance Cutter. The cutter
includes an aft launch and recovery area for two rigid hull inflatable
boats and a flight deck to accommodate a range of manned and unmanned
rotary wing aircraft. It is the largest and most technologically
advanced class of cutter in the U.S. Coast Guard, with robust
capabilities for maritime homeland security, law enforcement, marine
safety, environmental protection and national defense missions. This
class of cutters plays an important role in enhancing the Coast Guard's
operational readiness, capacity and effectiveness at a time when the
demand for their services has never been greater.

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) designs, builds and maintains
nuclear and non-nuclear ships for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard and
provides after-market services for military ships around the globe. For
more than a century, HII has built more ships in more ship classes than
any other U.S. naval shipbuilder at its Newport News Shipbuilding and
Ingalls Shipbuilding divisions. Employing about 37,000 in Virginia,
Mississippi, Louisiana and California, HII also provides a wide variety
of products and services to the commercial energy industry and other
government customers, including the Department of Energy. 
By Professional Mariner Staff