PASCAGOULA, Miss. (AP) - The U.S. Navy is adding another $57 million to what it's paying a Mississippi shipyard to repair a destroyer damaged in a June collision that killed seven sailors.
The additional contract for repairing the USS Fitzgerald was awarded Tuesday to Ingalls Shipbuilding of Pascagoula, Mississippi. The destroyer arrived at Ingalls in January. A June 17 collision with a Philippine-flagged container ship caved in parts of the Fitzgerald above and below the waterline.
Ingalls, part of Virginia-based Huntington Ingalls Industries, already received a $63 million contract to rip out damaged areas. Repairs and modernization are expected to take until mid-2019.
Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer has said it could cost $600 million combined to repair the Fitzgerald and the USS John S. McCain, another destroyer that was damaged in August.
