The Navy on Wednesday funded two more DDG 51 Arleigh-Burke Class destroyers, bringing the number to eight out of ten awarded through a pair of multi-year contracts.
One of the two ships was funded under a five-year procurement contract through fiscal 2017 with Huntington Ingalls Industries, and the other under a similar agreement covering the same period with General Dynamics Corp.'s Bath Iron Works, officials with Naval Sea Systems Command said in a news release.
"These funding actions demonstrate the Navy's continued success in executing the DDG 51 class shipbuilding program," Capt. Mark Vandroff, DDG 51 program manager, said in the release. "By successfully leveraging competition throughout the DDG 51 shipbuilding program, the Navy continues to generate cost savings while delivering vital warfighting capability."
A total of 69 DDG 51 destroyers are now in service or under contract, according to reports. One of the newest destroyers, the USS Ralph Johnson, is set to be christened this spring.
The Navy plans to spend a total of $107 billion buying 86 of the destroyers, according to recently released Pentagon budget documents. The service will have spent $83.3 billion on the program by the end of the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. It has budgeted $3.5 billion for the acquisition effort in fiscal 2017, leaving a balance of $20 billion.
