US Navy seeks $30bn contract for Pacific carrier dry dock

The US Navy has published a solicitation for a construction contract worth up to $30 billion to build a multi-mission dry dock at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Washington state. The contract will span five years with three one-year options, utilizing task orders typically valued between $2 billion and $6 billion. The project aims to replace aging infrastructure that currently limits the service's ability to repair its most advanced vessels in the Pacific.

For European allies, the investment signals a long-term US commitment to maintaining a robust naval presence in the Indo-Pacific, ensuring American forces are not stretched thin across global theaters. Currently, the US cannot perform depot-level maintenance on its newest Gerald R. Ford-class carriers on the West Coast. “The Navy does not currently have the capacity and capability to perform depot-level maintenance on a Gerald R. Ford-class carrier in the Pacific Northwest,” the Navy stated on the project’s website.

The existing infrastructure is severely outdated. “The only dry dock on the West Coast able to accommodate a current Nimitz-class aircraft carrier is Dry Dock 6 (DD6), which does not meet seismic resiliency standards and cannot fully accommodate Ford-class carriers,” the Navy’s project site reads. This leaves a significant vulnerability for ships operating in the Pacific.

A contract of this magnitude will attract intense interest from the world’s largest construction and marine engineering conglomerates. European industrial firms with specialized expertise in maritime civil engineering, heavy electrical grid construction, and dock systems frequently act as critical subcontractors on massive US military infrastructure builds. The project requires complex logistics, including dredging, the demolition of Dry Dock 3, and the installation of specialized drainage, flooding, and mechanical systems.

The Navy outlined a phased approach for the project at Naval Base Kitsap. Initial task orders will cover dredging, pier work, and utilities, followed by the main dry dock construction, then infrastructure like electrical substations and utility tunnels, and finally the dock caisson. The new facility will be built within the footprint of the existing Dry Dock 3 and Piers 6 and 7.

This project is part of a broader modernization effort covering four US shipyards. Puget Sound, which the Navy established in 1891 for $10,000, has been a cornerstone of West Coast maritime operations for over a century. “The Multi-Mission Dry Dock is a fully pressure-relieved dry dock capable of accommodating shipyard repair services for the newest Ford-class aircraft carrier, Nimitz-class carriers, and other surface and subsurface ships served by PSNS & IMF,” according to the Navy's notice.