The US Navy has picked a Texas-based shipping company to transport the damaged US Navy destroyer USS Fitzgerald back to the US for repairs.
USS Fitzgerald, which was heavily damaged in a June 17 collision with a merchant vessel, will be brought from Japan to Mississippi where it is to be repaired by Huntington Ingalls Industries.
To remind, seven USS Fitzgerald sailors lost their lives after the destroyer collided with Philippine-flagged merchant vessel ACX Crystal off the coast of Japan.
The $3.1 million firm, fixed-price heavy-lift contract was awarded to Patriot Shipping by the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command.
The heavy-lift will be completed by November 2017, the navy said.
This will not be the first time the US Navy has transported a warship on a float-on/float-off (FLO/FLO) vessel. Back in 2000, the US Military Sealift Command transported another destroyer, the USS Cole, from the Gulf of Aden to the US after it had sustained a 40-foot-by-40-foot hole in its hull following a terrorist attack that killed 17 US sailors on October 12.