MINNEAPOLIS, 14 Nov. 2007.BAE Systems was awarded an $8 million contract, which has the potential to reach up to $64 million, from Raytheon Company for the first two shipsets of MK57 Vertical Launching System (VLS) for the U.S. Navy's DDG 1000 Zumwalt class of destroyers.
The contract covers the continuation of design, integration, requirements verification, and the initial purchase of materials for the first two shipsets. Work on this contract award begins immediately and continues until January 2012.
"This contract award is a significant milestone marking the transition from design into production," says Jay Dolan, MK57 VLS program manager at BAE Systems.
Work will be performed at BAE Systems facilities in Minneapolis, Minn.; Cordova, Ala.; and Aberdeen, S.D.
DDG 1000 Zumwalt is the lead ship of a class of next-generation multimission destroyers tailored for land attack and littoral dominance.
The MK57 VLS is being developed under a collaborative partnership between Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems and BAE Systems. The MK57 VLS for the DDG 1000 is comprised of 20 peripherally distributed modules. Each module includes four cells.
