The initial contract is set for the dry dock period. In my ships case, we are talking a 50 million dollar contract for the repairs requested. The initial bid is severely undercut to compete with other contractors. From what I can tell, that chunk covers "as is" expenses, such as wages, materials, equipment, etc etc. However, the DoD offers a "bonus" a 1-5 percent of the original contract if certain conditions are met. That is their profit, but I'm telling you, they fight for it. Anytime I catch a contractor ***** off, or screwing up a government checkpoint, I fill out a form that gets filed and penalizes the contractor by taking a little bit out of the bonus pot. They can screw us back at the end though by finding something ridiculously expensive to fix at the end of the dry dock period and screw us up the ass with up to 5 times the cost of the job to finish it within the window. Part of my job is to make sure they don't pull any fast ones on us. No I haven't compared with other industries, but these contractors running the show have 30 years under their belt and have seen the shipbuilding industry in San Diego change over that period of time. Most contractors can't afford shipbuilding contracts because of all the undercutting. The Navy doesn't see most of the money in the DoD's budget, so we don't have the luxury of getting contracts with profit mongers like blackwater.Yes, this is a PR stunt. But the ship is still going to provide more billets for more Americans to feed and support their families. This ship is probably going to be the humanitarian face for the Navy. We could use some good karma for our military force. Also, Navy shipbuilding is one industry in America that refuses to go overseas. I'd much rather spend a billion dollars on a ship built by Americans then crooks on wall street.