WASHINGTON – Tens of millions of dollars are at stake for Maine’s leading private employer, shipbuilder Bath Iron Works, as lawmakers wrestle over defense funding this week.

At issue is the number of DDG-51 Arleigh-Burke Class Destroyers that should be built. Last week, the Senate approved multi-year funding of $2.97 billion for three new ships. In October, the House decided to add another $820 million for a fourth ship to be built next year.

BIW and Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi divide the task for building the DDG-51, a ship that is celebrated as the backbone of the Navy’s surface fleet.

Lawmakers from the two chambers must now negotiate an agreement on the number of DDG-51s as they prepare for a final vote on the 2002 defense-spending bill, which is expected to take place later this week.

“This legislation makes critical investments in a variety of projects important to both our national defense and to the state of Maine,” said Sen. Susan Collins, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who led much of the fight to maintain funding for BIW projects.

Negotiators also will hammer out differences on funding for the design stage of a new high-tech destroyer, DD-X. BIW officials hope the DD-X, formerly the DD-21, will ramp up as the DDG-51 Aegis destroyer is phased out in coming years.

Both BIW and Ingalls are competing to be the lead contractor of the DD-X, a program predicted to carry a $30-billion price tag, but continuation of the DDG-51 is essential to help bridge the time gap between now and 2011, when the first DD-X is expected to be ocean-going, according to Rep. Tom Allen, who represents the 1st District where the shipyard is located.

“Getting an extra ship is a very big deal,” said Allen, a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

Funding for a fourth DDG-51 is not only important because it would help sustain the Navy’s fleet until the DD-X is brought online, but also because it would keep many of BIW’s 7,000 workers employed as a cohesive shipbuilding team, Allen said. “We can’t take those very skilled people and lay them off and then hire them back again.”

As conceived, the high-tech DD-X would be a stealthier and smaller land-attack destroyer that would require only half the crew of a DDG-51. Planners intend to install guns capable of shooting targets at up to 100 miles inland. However, internal disputes at the Pentagon over the vulnerability and safety of a smaller-scale ship held up the final go-ahead for the program until recently when the White House championed the program as being “crucial to future shipbuilding.”

Still, indecisiveness at the Pentagon sent mixed messages to Congress. While the Senate approved $563 million for the initial design phase of the ship, the House approved spending of just $150 million on the program in October.

BIW is hoping that final negotiations will approve “at least $450 million,” according to Kenneth Pease, spokesman for General Dynamics, owner of the shipyard, who said both the DD-X and DDG-51 programs are important.

“We strongly believe we need to move on the design phase of the DD-X and begin the process of replacing the DDG-51, but there is also a desperate need of more ships in the short-term,” he said. “The Navy is down to only 98 combatants and that’s unacceptable for the way the world is now.”

Funding for other BIW projects is expected to remain relatively intact when the final congressional vote takes place on the defense spending bill, including $15 million for the LPD-17 Amphibious Assault Transport Ship, $3 million for the DDG-51 composite twisted rudder project, and $4 million for a fuel-cell technology program.