Dry dock under way
Groton―Guided by tugboats a U.S. Navy floating dry dock departed the Naval Submarine Base on Friday bound for an even larger dry dock in Norfolk, Virginia for scheduled overhaul work.
The $32,222,891 million overhaul is expected to take six-months.
The ARDM-4 Shippingport, one of only two medium auxillary repair dry docks in the Navy, has been in service at the submarine base since 1979.
This is the first off-site overhaul work for the 5,400-ton floating dry dock since 2012 when it was upgraded to support lifting of Virginia-class submarines according to Navy spokesman Lt. Seth Koenig.
Shippingport’s most recent lift was for maintenance on the Historic Ship Nautilus.
The journey is expected to take five days.