Navy selects South Mississippi shipyard to build new ship. And it’s in a hurry
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Navy selects Ingalls to build FF(X) frigates based on Legend-Class cutter.
- Ingalls will leverage workforce and $1B infrastructure investments to scale.
- Program targets first hull launch in 2028; ships focus on mine and ASW roles.
Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula was selected to build a new class of smaller combatant ships, the U.S. Navy announced Friday.
The FF(X) frigate is based on Ingalls’ Legend-Class National Security Cutter, the Navy said in a press release, and is engineered for rapid, cost-effective production.
The South Mississippi shipbuilder has the capacity and skilled workforce to take on this new ship, said a spokesperson with Huntington Ingalls Industries, parent company of Ingalls Shipbuilding.
“We have the workforce needed to fulfill the requirements,” the company said, and continuously invests in workforce development to meet future demands.
The plan is to start building the first ship once the contract is finalized. The Navy hasn’t announced the cost of the first ship, which will be smaller and more agile to handle tasks too small for larger ships, like mine-hunting or anti-submarine warfare.
“Our goal is clear: launch the first hull in the water in 2028,” said John C. Phelan, Secretary of the Navy.
Ingalls Shipbuilding already is building Navy destroyers (DDG), and amphibious ships (LPDs) at the Pascagoula shipyard in Jackson County, where 10 national security cutters were built for the Coast Guard over nearly 20 years, through 2023. It also is modernizing the Zumwalt-class of guided missile destroyers with technology upgrades.
For this new ship, “Speed matters,” said Chris Kastner, HII president and CEO, “and the NSC ship design is stable and produceable and will lead to predictable schedules. I have great confidence in the Ingalls team to execute this program, and in our ongoing efforts with our partners to successfully expand the U.S. shipbuilding industrial base to meet the Navy’s needs.”
HII has invested over $1 billion in infrastructure, facility and toolsets at Ingalls Shipbuilding and has partnered with smaller shipyards in the Gulf South to build some of the components that are shipped to Pascagoula.
