HII expands distributed shipbuilding strategy to amphibious ships

San Antonio (LPD 17) class amphibious transport dock Richard McCool Jr (LPD 29) (US DoD)

HII's Ingalls Shipbuilding division, based in Pascagoula, Mississippi, is expanding its distributed shipbuilding strategy to amphibious ships, according to an HII statement on 27 July.

The expansion covers modular unit construction for US Navy amphibious transports, starting with Philadelphia (LPD 32), the statement said. HII laid the keel for the Philadelphia on 3 March this year.

Eight structural units have been awarded to two partners and are in early production, according to the statement, which did not name the partners.

The move follows HII's successful use of distributed shipbuilding to build Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, the statement said.

Partner companies built modular units and supported early sequence work for Thad Cochran (DDG 135), an Arleigh Burke-class Flight III destroyer, the statement said, adding that Ingalls Shipbuilding seeks to “replicate those efficiencies across the shipbuilding line”.

“Expanding distributed shipbuilding into the LPD programme is a critical step in scaling capacity to meet rising fleet demand,” Brian Blanchette, president of Ingalls Shipbuilding, said in the statement.

“By shifting selected structural units to trusted partners, just as we've successfully done in the Flight III destroyer program, we're enabling more parallel construction and freeing our Ingalls team to focus on the complex assembly and integration work that only a major shipyard can perform,” he said.

Distributed shipbuilding is intended to help accelerate construction with additional space, equipment, and people, Kari Wilkinson, executive vice-president for HII and president of the Newport News Shipbuilding division, told reporters during a media roundtable in April at the Navy League's Sea-Air-Space exhibition in National Harbor, Maryland.

She noted that workforce has been a constraint in recent years.