BAE Systems Wins $60 Million USS Cincinnati Navy Maintenance Contract

BAE Systems Maritime Solutions Inc. of San Diego has won a U.S. Navy firm-fixed-price contract worth up to $60.4 million for the fiscal 2027 Docking Selected Restricted Availability of USS Cincinnati (LCS 20). Under the Naval Sea Systems Command award, the company will provide the labor, facilities, equipment, testing and quality assurance needed to maintain, modernize and repair the ship in San Diego. The availability is scheduled to begin in March 2027, with completion expected by April 2028.

USS Cincinnati Docking Selected Restricted Availability Details

BAE Systems will prepare for and carry out repairs and alterations aboard Cincinnati using the Navy’s work specifications, drawings and test procedures. The solicitation work document identifies foundation prefabrication, temporary services and shipboard work associated with NAVSEA’s PMS 321 and IWS 80 offices as parts of the availability. The contract also calls for documentation of the completed work.

The Navy’s preliminary work outline describes a substantial dry-dock and pier-side effort. It anticipated waterjet and shaft assembly replacements, thrust-bearing repairs, scheduled main propulsion diesel engine and ship service diesel generator maintenance, ride-control repairs, fire-pump overhauls, and tank and underwater-hull preservation. Some repairs in that outline, including work on watertight doors, structural welds and the ship’s radar, were identified as condition-based rather than assured work.

The preliminary outline also identified navigation and electronic-warfare hardware installations, along with electrical, piping and ventilation work across multiple ship spaces. It estimated about 79,000 shipyard labor-days for maintenance and 5,100 for modernization. The shipyard’s production schedule will need to accommodate work by Navy personnel, third-party contractors and alteration installation teams; the solicitation called for facilities and staffing capable of coordinating those concurrent efforts.

Littoral Combat Ship Background

Cincinnati is an Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship. The Navy describes the LCS program as using mission packages for surface warfare, mine countermeasures and antisubmarine warfare, while its 2025 Owners & Operators Manual lists Cincinnati among the variant’s ships. This award concerns an in-service ship availability, not construction of another vessel. In its pre-solicitation notice, the Navy said the intended result of the availability is a repaired ship ready to return to the fleet.

Award and Contractor Background

The Navy received two offers for the Cincinnati contract through a full-and-open competition. NAVSEA issued one West Coast solicitation covering the planned fiscal 2027 availabilities of Cincinnati and USS Canberra (LCS 30), but sought a separate contract for each ship. The Cincinnati award covers its own availability, rather than both vessels.

This award was disclosed by the DoW in its daily press release. Additional contract details will be available on HigherGov in approximately 90 days under N0002427C4441 after the contract is formally disclosed by the government.