HII gets $99 million Navy modification for Zumwalt destroyer sea trials

Advanced Acoustic Concepts (AAC), a U.S.-based Thales subsidiary, won a $53.9 million Navy contract to produce and deliver two Remote Mine Hunting modules and engineering support. Thales announced the award Nov. 2. The award includes options for additional modules that could raise the cumulative contract value to approximately $196.2 million.¹

Navy contract$53.9 millionactual

to produce and deliver two integrated Remote Mine Hunting modules and engineering support

total cumulative contract valueapproximately $196.2 millioncontingent

The award includes options for additional modules that could raise total cumulative contract value to approximately $196.2 million

Source: Thales, Nov. 2, 2026

Sources

• www.thalesgroup.com ↗

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The module suite includes multiview towed synthetic aperture sonar for mine detection and imaging, plus AI-augmented automatic target recognition software for processing, classifying and mapping mine-hunting data. AAC President Mike Carnovale said the solution helps accelerate the path from detection to action for both manned and unmanned surface vessel platforms.¹

Also announced

In a separate development, Breaking Defense reported that Thales and HII announced they had teamed up to deploy the SAMDIS 600 on HII's Remus 620 unmanned underwater vehicle.²

The Department of War said Monday, Oct. 12, that General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works has the capacity and stability to support construction of a second guided-missile destroyer.^1–2 Building an additional Arleigh Burke-class (DDG 51) destroyer at the Maine yard is feasible, the department concluded, "should Congress secure the necessary funding."¹

OneDDG-51 the fiscal 2027 budget request includes funding for, Sen. Susan Collins said (a request, not enacted)

11destroyers on contract at Bath Iron Works, seven in construction, Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said

Fourof those 11 with no metal cut yet, Cao said

On Oct. 12 the Department of War said Bath Iron Works can support a second destroyer "should Congress secure the necessary funding." It named no contract, fiscal year or dollar amount.

Source: Senate Appropriations Committee, May 21, 2026; Department of War, Oct. 12, 2026.

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In May, the Navy's account of Bath centered on its backlog.³ At a hearing on May 21, Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins pressed Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao on a fiscal 2027 request that included funding for only one DDG-51.^3–4 Cao answered that Bath had 11 destroyers on contract and seven in construction.³ "We haven't even begun to cut metal for the other four yet," he said. "We're trying to allow the industrial base to catch up."³

The department now cites "verifiable performance enhancements" from what it called a multi-phase due diligence review of the yard's production throughput, schedule adherence, quality assurance, supply chain resilience and workforce. Its release gave no figures from that review and named no statute, contract or dollar amount behind the certification.¹ Collins, who said she worked with the administration during its review and "repeated visits to BIW," said the decision clears the way for the department to order an additional destroyer there in fiscal 2027.²

Bath is one of two DDG-51 builders, alongside HII's Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss.⁵ In May, Collins called for at least two a year to sustain both yards and their suppliers. Without steady throughput, she said, "what you create is a gap at the steel cutting stage."³