Northrop Grumman Corp. may have to spend little, if anything at all, to repair its hurricane-damaged shipyards in Pascagoula, Miss., the New York Times reported.

The U.S. Navy has asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for $2 billion to help rebuild Northrop’s three Gulf Coast shipyards to their pre-Katrina levels, the Times said. Most of the money would be used to rewrite Northrop’s usual contracts with the Navy to shift the burden of hurricane-related cost overruns and shipbuilding delays from Northrop to the government.

L.A.-based Northrop also expects to get $1 billion from its insurers to repair damaged buildings.

The Navy says the longer it takes to repair the Northrop facilities, the region’s largest employer, the more it will cost to build Naval ships there, the paper said.

Pentagon critics argue the $2 billion is almost equal to the amount FEMA is spending to repair housing, questioning whether the Navy and Northrop are using Katrina as an excuse to gain additional funds for shipbuilding programs that are infamous for cost overruns, the Times reported.

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