U.S. Navy warship gun program heads toward new contract

The U.S. Navy has asked defense companies for feedback on how it plans to structure a future contract for its Gun Weapon Systems program, the engineering effort behind the guns mounted on its warships.

Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division in Virginia posted the request for information on Oct. 9. It asks potential vendors to comment on a proposed hybrid contract that would combine firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee work, and responses are due Oct. 29. The notice says the request is for planning only, and the Navy will use the answers to shape its acquisition strategy.

The posting does not say which gun systems the program covers, how much the contract could be worth, how long it would run or when a formal solicitation might follow. Those details, along with the specific questions for industry, are in attachments that were not included in the public summary. The notice lists the work under engineering services, with Dahlgren as the place of performance.

Under a hybrid structure, the Navy would pay a set price for tasks it can define clearly in advance and reimburse costs plus a fixed fee for work that is harder to scope, such as development and engineering tasks where the final effort is uncertain. The government often uses that mix on long-running engineering support programs.

Dahlgren is the U.S. Navy’s main center for surface ship weapons engineering, including the guns carried on destroyers, cruisers and smaller combatants. The largest of those is the Mk 45 5-inch (127 mm) gun fitted to Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, which can fire 16 to 20 rounds a minute.

Ship guns have taken on a larger role in air defense over the past three years. During operations against Houthi forces in the Red Sea, U.S. destroyers used their 5-inch guns to shoot down attack drones, and the Navy reported firing 160 main gun rounds in those operations. In one engagement, the destroyer USS Stockdale (DDG 106) used its 5-inch gun to destroy a low-flying Houthi drone that was detected late, according to U.S. Central Command. Guns offer a cheaper way to deal with small drones than surface-to-air missiles, which can cost millions of dollars each.