U.S. Navy awards $150 million contract to overhaul USS Boxer

The U.S. Navy awarded BAE Systems a $149.8 million contract to overhaul USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship that turned back from deployment in 2024 after a rudder failure just 10 days out of port.

BAE Systems Maritime Solutions in San Diego will perform the maintenance, modernization and repair work during a fiscal 2027 selected restricted availability, according to a Department of War contract announcement. The fixed-price contract includes options that could raise its total value to $180 million. Work is scheduled for completion by October 2028.

The contract covers labor, supervision, equipment, testing, facilities and quality assurance needed for the Chief of Naval Operations availability, a scheduled maintenance period for critical modernization and repair. Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington is the contracting activity. Three companies submitted competing offers before BAE Systems won the award through full and open competition.

Boxer, a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship commissioned in 1995, displaces roughly 41,000 tons and carries Marines, fighter aircraft and helicopters as the flagship of its amphibious ready group. The ship has struggled with engineering problems for years. Investigations covering January through November 2023 found three separate failures that Rear Adm. Randall Peck, the strike group commander, attributed to a lack of procedural compliance and general complacency among the crew. In one incident, the ship’s main reduction gears, which transfer power from the steam plant to the propellers, operated for two hours without lubrication. A separate 2022 incident damaged two forced draft blowers aboard the ship.

Boxer deployed in April 2024 after months of delay, then turned back to San Diego 10 days later when its starboard rudder and roller bearing system failed. Divers repaired the rudder pierside rather than in dry dock, since the San Diego dry docks large enough for the ship, including one at BAE Systems’ own yard, were occupied by other vessels at the time. The repair took roughly two months.

The Navy had separately planned a longer maintenance period for Boxer, unrelated to the rudder repair. Naval Sea Systems Command spokeswoman Alan Koehler said in 2024 that a selected restricted availability was scheduled to run roughly 18 months starting in April 2025 and ending in October 2026. A 2023 Government Accountability Office report found the Navy faced an estimated $1.8 billion backlog in surface ship maintenance fleet-wide, with casualty reports, incidents that impair a ship’s ability to perform its mission, for Wasp-class ships rising from 18 in fiscal year 2011 to 61 in fiscal year 2021.

Boxer has deployed steadily since returning from its 2024 repairs, operating at sea every month but one between August 2023 and mid-2026, according to Navy officials. The ship received Navy-wide recognition during that period, including a Battle Effectiveness Award for sustained performance and readiness.

Fiscal 2026 Navy procurement funds will cover $144.7 million of the new contract. Fiscal 2026 operations and maintenance funds cover the remaining $5 million, all of which expires at the end of the current fiscal year.