BAE Systems To Modernise US Navy Destroyer

BAE Systems has been awarded a $108 million contract to maintain and modernise U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS The Sullivans. 

The Aegis guided missile destroyer will be upgraded by Florida shipyard Jacksonville Ship Repair. As per a recent statement by the U.S. Department of Defense, the final bill for the works could exceed $110 million.

The works will be performed in Mayport, Florida, and are scheduled to be completed by March 2027.

USS The Sullivans was built by Bath Iron Works and launched in the summer of 1995; she was commissioned into service in April 1997.

The ship hit the headlines in 2000 when she was reportedly the target of a failed Al-Qaeda terror attack. While in port at Aden, Yemen, in early January terrorists planned to load a boat with explosives and detonate it near the destroyer. The plot failed when the planned attack boat sank because it was overloaded.

In September 2020 the destroyer formed part of the task group accompanying HMS Queen Elizabeth for the GROUPEX and Joint Warrior exercises.

• You can read full details of the contract on the US DoD website