Rapid Fire March 29, 2012: US Navy Long-Range Shipbuilding

• The US Navy’s latest 30-year shipbuilding plan [PDF] projects an average fleet size of 298 ships. An average of 8.9 new ships would be built each year for a total of 268 vessels. Spending is expected to peak to almost $20B/year in the early 20s and 30s because of SSBN (X) recapitalization. Out of 45 ships to be inactivated over the FY13-17 period, 22 are set aside for foreign military sales. See chart at the bottom of this entry.

• Huntington Ingalls Industries reported revenue down 2.2% to $6.58B in 2011, and $5.6B of new contract awards. Total backlog at the end of December 2011 was $16.3B.

• Hawker Beechcraft is preparing to file for bankruptcy according to Reuters and the NYT.