Navy Awards $200 Million Contract to Upgrade USS Boxer

U.S. Marine Corps UH-1Y Venom pilots with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 163 (Reinforced), 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, demonstrate an unguided missile attack run at the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer during an air power demonstration. U.S. Marine Corps/Sgt. Adam Dublinske

SAN DIEGO — BAE Systems has received a $200 million contract from the U.S. Navy to drydock and perform nearly 18 months of maintenance and modernization work aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer, according to a company release. 

The drydocking of the USS Boxer will be the first time the company’s San Diego shipyard will use its 950-foot-long Pride of California drydock to service a large-deck warship. The shipyard is nearing completion of another major milestone for the drydock: the first simultaneous docking of two guided-missile destroyers on the West Coast. 

BAE’s San Diego shipyard will begin working aboard the 843-foot-long USS Boxer in June. Under the awarded contract, BAE will upgrade the ship to support and operate joint strike fighters on-board; perform hull, tank and mechanical work; and make other shipboard improvements. The shipyard is expected to complete its work aboard the 25-year-old ship in December 2021. The contract includes options that, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value to $207.5 million. 

Last October, BAE Systems simultaneously docked the USS Stethem and USS Decatur. The guided-missile destroyers are scheduled to be refloated together from the Pride of California drydock later this spring. The Pride of California, the largest drydock in California, can lift more than 55,000 tons. 

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