General Dynamics NASSCO
The General Dynamics Nassco, also known as Nation Steel and Ship Building Company, is located in San Diego, California and has been the recognizable leader in large ship construction for the United States Navy since 1960, thanks in no large part to its enormous modern industrial facility encompassing 147 acres in Southern California. In the prime of shipbuilding activities, primarily when war is looming, the shipyard employs well more than 4000 people in various trades including welders, riggers, engineer, and boilermakers. Their location, expertise and full service capabilities are obvious factors that lead the Navy toward NASSCO when it comes time for a new ship building project. The United States Navy has relied on NASSCO for decades as a repair facility for its Pacific Fleet ships and has rewarded NASSCO with a certification as a Master Ship Repair contractor for both the Navy and the Military Sealift Command.
Responsible for building nearly one hundred large ocean vessels since 1960, NASSCO has become the nation's leader in the building and development of U.S. Navy ships (carriers and destroyers). The yard has also been responsible for the construction and never-ending repairs of combat logistics support ships, destroyer support vessels, hospital ships, and a wide range of strategic Sealift and other support ships used in every American conflict of the past five decades.
In October of 2001, the Nave rewarded NASSCO, for its decades of top of the line production, with a seven-hundred-nine-million-dollar contract to construct and develop the first two ships in the T-AKE program, a new state of the art class of dry cargo/ ammunition ships for the Military Sealift Command. The Navy was so happy with the performance of NASSCO's delivery of the first two ship that through 2007 they have awarded the yard to build seven more ships with a grand total of 3.7 billion dollars being invested by the Navy.
As with many of the nation's top shipyards, in recent years NASSCO has been engulfed in legal troubles over their use of asbestos in both the ship making process and as insulation for many of the yards buildings. Asbestos is a fiber that was readily available and reasonably priced in the 1950's and 1960's. The fire and heat resistant nature of the fiber made it a popular choice for many shipyards and ship builders.
In recent years it has discovered that asbestos can be directly linked to malignant mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a disease in which malignant cancer cells form on the lining of the chest or abdomen. Many of the workers at the NASSCO in the time frame have suffered from similar symptoms and the rate of death of workers on the side has been said to equal the rate of death of the soldiers fighting in the wars the shipbuilders are building ships to fight in. The regularity of mesothelioma cases and their linkage to NASSCO has led to many lawsuits and although these lawsuits are still pending, a black cloud hangs more than one of the nations largest ship producers.
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