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BAE Systems Secures $98M U.S. Navy Contracts to Maintain USS Kansas City and USS Stockdale Warships.
The U.S. Navy has awarded two contracts totaling $98 million to BAE Systems for scheduled maintenance on USS Kansas City and USS Stockdale at the company’s San Diego shipyard. The work, set to begin in May 2026, is intended to restore material condition, preserve hull integrity, and improve crew habitability across two key surface combatant classes.
BAE Systems announced that its ship repair business has secured U.S. Navy contracts covering major scheduled maintenance for the Independence-class littoral combat ship USS Kansas City (LCS-22) and the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Stockdale (DDG-106). The Docking Selected Restricted Availability periods are expected to begin in May 2026 and will focus on hull, mechanical, and habitability improvements, work the Navy considers essential for keeping high-demand surface combatants ready for operational tasking.
The U.S. Navy has awarded BAE Systems $98 million to perform scheduled dry-dock maintenance on a littoral combat ship and a guided-missile destroyer in San Diego, reinforcing fleet readiness and long-term surface combatant sustainment (Picture Source: U.S. Navy)
The first contract, valued at approximately $37 million, covers DSRA work on USS Kansas City. The scope includes drydocking, underwater hull preservation, maintenance and modernization of selected onboard systems, and refurbishment of habitability spaces to support the ship’s rotational crewing model. As an Independence-variant littoral combat ship built by Austal USA, Kansas City is part of a class designed for operations in near-shore and contested maritime environments, with an emphasis on speed, shallow-draft access, and modular mission adaptability.
The Independence-class littoral combat ships are intended to integrate mission packages tailored to surface warfare, mine countermeasures, or anti-submarine warfare roles. Within this framework, DSRA maintenance periods play a critical role in sustaining baseline platform availability, addressing corrosion and wear associated with high-tempo operations, and ensuring that mission systems remain compatible with evolving fleet standards. The maintenance period awarded to BAE Systems is therefore focused on sustainment rather than capability expansion, reflecting the Navy’s priority to maximize operational availability across the LCS force.
The second contract, valued at approximately $61 million, covers DSRA maintenance on USS Stockdale, an Arleigh Burke-class Flight IIA guided-missile destroyer commissioned in 2009. The planned work includes preservation of the ship’s hull and superstructure, interior tank maintenance, and improvements to crew living spaces. These activities are designed to restore material readiness following operational deployments and to extend the vessel’s service life within the Navy’s surface combatant fleet.
As a Flight IIA destroyer, Stockdale represents a key element of the U.S. Navy’s multi-mission surface warfare capability, operating as part of carrier strike groups and in independent tasking in support of air defense, maritime security, and power projection missions. Scheduled maintenance availabilities such as DSRA are essential to maintaining the ship’s readiness profile and ensuring compliance with fleet maintenance and safety standards.
Commenting on the awards, Eric Icke, vice president and general manager of BAE Systems Maritime Solutions San Diego, stated that the work packages are intended to return both vessels to the fleet with the material condition required by the Navy, while meeting schedule and quality expectations. He emphasized the company’s continued cooperation with the Navy and industry partners in delivering surface ship sustainment on the U.S. West Coast.
BAE Systems’ San Diego shipyard remains one of the U.S. Navy’s principal private-sector facilities for surface ship maintenance and modernization in the Pacific region, operating under the oversight of Naval Sea Systems Command. The contracts for USS Kansas City and USS Stockdale illustrate the Navy’s reliance on a distributed public-private industrial base to sustain both littoral and blue-water surface forces amid sustained operational demand.
With these DSRA periods scheduled to begin in 2026, both ships are expected to rejoin the fleet following maintenance with restored readiness and improved habitability, supporting ongoing U.S. Navy operations across multiple theaters, including the Indo-Pacific.