BAE Systems gets $36.6m for USS Cole overhaul

The US Naval Sea Systems Command has awarded BAE Systems a $36.6 million contract for the modernization and maintenance work on the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole (DDG 67).

The Cole will undergo one year of extensive work at the company’s shipyard in Norfolk, Virginia,the ship’s homeport.

The contract includes options that, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value to $96.7 million.

Under the extended dry-docking selected restricted availability contract, BAE Systems employees and subcontractors will dry-dock the 505-foot-long Cole and perform upgrades and repairs to the ship’s hull and engineering systems that will affect nearly every space on board. The work is expected to begin in July and be completed in July 2019.

“Our work on board the USS Cole is important to the service life of the ship and for expanding its capability to carry out future missions,” said Dave Thomas, vice president and general manager of BAE Systems Norfolk Ship Repair. “We are prepared to perform this extensive dry-docking, working with the ship’s crew, the Navy, and our industry partners.”

Commissioned in June 1996, the USS Cole is named after U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant Darrell S. Cole, who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Battle of Iwo Jima. USS Cole is best known for the terrorist attack in the port of Aden, Yemen, in 2000, in which 17 USS Cole sailors lost their lives.