WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Huntington Ingalls has been awarded a $2.8-billion contract to refuel aircraft carrier George Washington's two nuclear reactors and perform engineering upgrades throughout the warship, the US Department of Defense said in a press release.
"Huntington Ingalls Inc. (HII-INC), Newport News, Virginia, is being awarded a $2,800,000,000 contract for USS George Washington [nuclear] Refueling Complex Overhaul," release stated on Friday.
A nuclear refueling complex overhaul takes approximately four years to complete and is conducted only one time over an aircraft carrier’s 50-year life span, according to Huntington Ingalls.
The effort involves the refueling of the ship’s two nuclear reactors and detailed repairs, upgrades and modernization of the entire Nimitz-class warship, the release said.
Huntington Ingalls has performed nuclear refueling complex overhauls on five Nimitz-class aircraft carriers: The Nimitz, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Carl Vinson, Theodore Roosevelt and the Abraham Lincoln.
