Two Navy oilers that spent part of this year in North Charleston are booked to come back in January.

The Navy’s Military Sealift Command awarded Detyens Shipyards Inc. a $20.5 million contract on Oct. 30 to overhaul and dry-dock the fleet replenishment oiler USNS Leroy Grumman, according to the Department of War’s daily contract announcements. On Nov. 4, the command added an $11.4 million contract for a midterm availability, a scheduled repair period, on the oiler USNS Robert F. Kennedy.

Together, the two jobs are worth $31.9 million. Both contracts include unexercised options for more work and time. If all of them are exercised, the Grumman job would grow to $23.2 million and the Kennedy job to $11.8 million, for a total of about $35 million, the announcements say.

The schedule

All of the work will be done in North Charleston, according to the announcements.

The Kennedy job is the shorter one: 42 calendar days, from Jan. 11 to Feb. 21, 2027. The Grumman job runs 152 calendar days, from Jan. 20 to June 20, 2027.

Fleet replenishment oilers deliver fuel and supplies to Navy ships at sea. The Kennedy is one of the Navy’s newest oilers. General Dynamics NASSCO built it in San Diego, and it was delivered to the Military Sealift Command on Dec. 10, 2024, as the fourth ship in the John Lewis class, the command said at the time. It can carry 162,000 barrels of diesel ship fuel and aviation fuel, along with dry stores cargo, according to the command.

The Grumman is an older Henry J. Kaiser-class oiler, according to the Navy.

Repeat customers

Both ships were at Detyens earlier this year, federal spending records show.

The Kennedy went through a post-shakedown availability, a maintenance period for newly delivered ships, at the yard under a $29.8 million contract that ran from Jan. 30 to Sept. 20, according to USAspending.gov. The Grumman had a $14.7 million midterm availability there from Jan. 23 to May 14, the records show.

The Military Sealift Command is a steady customer. Its contracting office in Norfolk, Virginia, handled both new awards. In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the command also hired the yard for a $23.9 million midterm availability on the USNS Oscar V. Peterson, according to USAspending.gov.

Small business competition

Both new contracts were set aside for small businesses and advertised on the federal government’s contracting website, according to the announcements. The Grumman job drew four offers. The Kennedy job drew three.

The awards are paid for with fiscal 2027 Navy operations and maintenance money. The full base amount of each has been obligated, and the money expires at the end of the fiscal year, the announcements say. The federal fiscal year began Oct. 1.

A busy winter

The oilers will arrive while other government ships are still at the yard. The Charleston-based Coast Guard cutter James is scheduled to be in dry dock there through Jan. 15, and two National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research ships are booked into February, federal spending records show.

If the schedules hold, the Kennedy’s repair period will end in late February, and the Grumman’s overhaul will wrap up in late June.