BATH

Just hours after its latest Arleigh Burke-class warship left the yard, officials at Bath Iron Works learned Wednesday night that the Navy had awarded the shipyard a $26 million contract for design work on the new DDG 1000 class of destroyers.

Jim DeMartini, communications manager at BIW, said Thursday that the contract represents a continuation of work being done there on the DDG 1000.

“This keeps us going,” DeMartini said. “This is incremental funding that keeps us doing work on the DDG 1000 contract. There’s no new jobs — it’s not new work — it just allows us to continue what we’ve been doing.”

The office of U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, announced the news.

Pentagon officials have now agreed to continue building the Burke line in both Maine and Mississippi.

“The contract will help keep workers on the job designing and building the DDG 1000 this winter and help keep the work force at BIW on the job,” Pingree said. “They are some of the best ship builders in the world and it’s critical to keep up the employment levels at the yard.”

The contract will provide for detailed design and construction work on the DDG 1000 line, including technical and industrial engineering on the ship, between now and next March. The first of the DDG 1000s, the Zumwalt, is scheduled to be launched in Maine in 2015.