Ordering five fiscal years of ships under one contract — multi-year procurement in destroyer construction
A Navy contract with Bath Iron Works carrying an obligated value of about $5.482 billion. The description reads FY18-FY22 DDG 51 CLASS SHIP CONSTRUCTION, covering five fiscal years of Arleigh Burke class destroyer construction under a single contract.
Contract key facts
- RecipientGeneral Dynamics
- Contract value$5,482,321,238 (≈$5.48B)
- BranchNavy
- Awarding agencyDepartment of Defense
- Awarding sub-agencyDepartment of the Navy
- Award typeDEFINITIVE CONTRACT
- Period of performance2018-09-27 〜 2030-12-20
- Contract ID (PIID)N0002418C2305
The amount cited in the write-up ($5,482,152,463) is the figure at the time of writing. After later modifications the record now shows $5,482,321,238 (the details above are current).
Contract scope (original)
FY18-FY22 DDG 51 CLASS SHIP CONSTRUCTION
Key points
- Obligated value is about $5.482 billion; the recipient is Bath Iron Works, the branch is the Navy, and the period runs September 2018 to December 2030.
- The description reads FY18-FY22 DDG 51 CLASS SHIP CONSTRUCTION — five fiscal years of destroyer construction under one contract.
- Multi-year procurement lets a yard plan material and workforce long term and can lower unit cost through bulk purchase.
- In exchange, altering quantity or specification later becomes hard — flexibility traded for price and stability.
- Of the 207 defense contracts this site holds as of 2026-09-02, 77 carry the Navy as branch, the largest share.
1Buying year by year, or buying together
Government procurement is appropriated by fiscal year as a rule. But for equipment like ships that takes years to build, ordering only that year portion separately leaves the yard unable to see ahead. Material has to be arranged and workers secured on plans that cross fiscal years. Multi-year procurement exists to close that mismatch. FY18-FY22 in the description shows five fiscal years gathered into one contract.
2What gathering them changes
The price of ordering together is that changing course later becomes hard. Altering quantity or specification raises questions of breach, and reducing mid-year for budgetary reasons is not available. Flexibility is given up in exchange for price and stability, and for each item that trade-off is argued in Congress.
3A contract running twelve years
The period runs September 2018 to December 2030, about 12.2 years. Five fiscal years of construction spanning twelve follows from the last year ship being built and delivered more than a decade after the contract was signed. The median duration across the 207 defense contracts this site holds as of 2026-09-02 is 10.7 years, so 12.2 is somewhat long.
Total outlays on the record are $0, a state shared by 115 of the 207 records (56 percent) at that date.
4Why the Navy leads
The Navy leads among the records this site holds as of 2026-09-02. Ships and carrier aircraft carry large values per award and build over long periods, so they persist as large contracts on the record. Shipyards are few in number, and a single contract running to the same recipient over many years also shapes this distribution.
Why it matters
For equipment taking years to build, annual appropriation and production planning fall out of step. Multi-year procurement closes that gap and bears directly on the supplier capital investment and employment planning.
FAQ
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Sources (primary)
This article is an independent organization based on the U.S. official spending data below. Verify the exact, latest details with the official source.
- USAspending (award details)
- Contract ID (PIID)：N0002418C2305