BAE Systems Awarded $14.6 Million Navy Deal to Overhaul USS Iwo Jima

The Navy exercised options on a previously awarded contract for the amphibious assault ship's Fiscal 2026 restricted availability, with work in Norfolk set to finish by May 2028.

First Published: August 4, 2026, 1:24 PM ET

NORFOLK, VIRGINIA — BAE Systems Norfolk Ship Repair Inc., a Virginia-based warship repair yard, received a $14.6 million modification to overhaul the USS Iwo Jima for the U.S. Navy, as announced on war.gov.

The award exercises options on a previously awarded contract, N00024-26-C-4405, covering the amphibious assault ship’s Fiscal 2026 Selected Restricted Availability. Fiscal 2026 operations and maintenance funds in the full amount fund the work at the time of award, according to war.gov. Those funds do not expire until two years after the award date. Mid Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center in Norfolk manages the deal, and crews will complete the work in Norfolk, Virginia, by May 2028.

The USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7) is a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship that carries Marines, helicopters and landing craft. A Selected Restricted Availability is a scheduled maintenance period during which shipyard crews repair hulls, machinery and combat systems to keep a vessel ready for deployment. The modification keeps that maintenance funded and on schedule through the spring of 2028. Delays or cost growth on such availabilities can ripple across deployment schedules for the wider amphibious fleet.

The deal benefits BAE Systems and its Norfolk workforce, which depends on a steady flow of Navy repair work in the Hampton Roads region, the largest concentration of naval power on the U.S. East Coast. Taxpayers carry the cost, while the Navy gains a maintained warship. Ship-repair awards of this size are routine for the Navy, which spends billions each year maintaining its surface fleet. Against new-construction contracts that run into the billions, a $14.6 million maintenance modification is modest, yet it reflects the continuous investment required to keep aging amphibious ships in service. The Iwo Jima entered the fleet in 2001 and has supported humanitarian and combat operations across the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

This has happened before. The Navy regularly exercises options on restricted availability contracts as maintenance work progresses, and BAE Systems has held repeated Norfolk repair awards for surface combatants and amphibious ships. Such modifications extend earlier agreements rather than open new competitions. The next decisions rest with the Mid Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center and BAE Systems as the work proceeds toward its scheduled May 2028 completion. No date has been announced for any further option or follow-on award tied to this availability.

Norfolk has anchored American naval power for more than a century, and its shipyards have weathered booms and busts alike. During World War II, the Norfolk Navy Yard and surrounding repair facilities serviced hundreds of warships damaged in the Atlantic campaign, employing tens of thousands of workers at their peak. When the war ended in 1945, the region’s yards contracted sharply. Generations of repair firms have since risen and fallen with the Navy’s maintenance budget, a cycle that continues to shape the workforce that keeps ships like the Iwo Jima at sea.