Litton Avondale Industries, a division of Litton Industries, has been awarded a $477.7 million contract by the U.S. Navy for the construction of an additional ship in the Navy's newest class of amphibious assault ships. The cost reimbursable contract is for the construction of LPD 20, the fourth ship in a planned 12-ship program. The follow-on eight ships in the LPD 17 SAN ANTONIO Class program will be awarded over the next four years.

As prime contractor for the LPD 17 program, Litton Avondale leads a team comprised of Bath Iron Works, Raytheon Electronic Systems and Intergraph Corporation. Design of the lead ship of the class is underway at Litton Avondale with actual production scheduled to begin this summer. Eight ships in the 12-ship program, including the contract awarded today for LPD 20, will be built at Litton Avondale in New Orleans. Four of the vessels are currently planned for production at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine.

The LPD 17 Amphibious Transport Dock Ships are designed to be 208.4 meters (684 feet) long and 31.9 meters (105 feet) wide and will be the functional replacement for the LPD 4, LSD 36, LKA 113, and LST 1179 Classes of Amphibious ships. The ship's mission is to embark, transport, and land elements of a landing force in an assault by helicopters, landing craft, and amphibious vehicles to conduct an amphibious warfare mission.

Litton Ship Systems (LSS), headquartered in Pascagoula, Mississippi, includes Litton Avondale Industries, located in New Orleans, Louisiana, as well as Litton Ingalls Shipbuilding and the Litton Ship Systems Full Service Center, both located in Pascagoula. LSS, which currently employs more than 17,000 shipbuilding professionals, primarily in Mississippi and Louisiana, is one of the nation's leading full service systems companies for the design, engineering, construction, and life cycle support of major surface ships for the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard and international navies, and for commercial vessels of all types. LSS has a firm business backlog exceeding $5.6 billion, in a variety of naval and commercial shipbuilding programs.