HII announces partnership with shipyards in multiple states to meet increased demand by U.S. Navy

• At Ingalls Shipbuilding, that means select outfitted structural units are being constructed at partner locations and delivered to the Pascagoula shipyard for integration.

HII is America’s largest shipbuilder and its shipyard in Pascagoula, Ingalls Shipbuilding, is the largest manufacturing employer in Mississippi with nearly 11,000 workers.

On Thursday, HII announced that the company is partnering with shipyards and fabricators in multiple states to grow its throughput and meet the increased demand for ships by the U.S. Navy.

With its customer’s support, HII said it is bringing the work to more companies and more jobs in more states, expanding capacity of the U.S. shipbuilding industrial base and improving schedule adherence for all ships built by HII.

For Ingalls, this means that select outfitted structural units for Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are being constructed, inspected and accepted at partner locations and later delivered to the Pascagoula shipyard for final integration.

According to HII, these partners were strategically selected beyond the company’s traditional labor market, at locations with existing skilled labor and facility capacity.

Ingalls said early phases of this destroyer work have been underway since 2024 with select partners. The pilot program has now been expanded to six different shipbuilding partners in multiple states, with additional work packages to include more U.S. shipbuilding partners are under evaluation.

The current scope of this work will support construction of DDGs 135, 137 and 139.

An Ingalls spokesperson said this effort is a workforce multiplier.

“These partners were strategically selected beyond the company’s traditional labor market, at companies with existing skilled labor and facility capacity. While we continue to grow our current skilled workforce, deploying a distributed shipbuilding approach provides the opportunity to increase throughput and reduce schedule risks,” the spokesperson said.

Ingalls noted that the effort allows the company to provide scalable workforce solutions to expand capacity, strengthen the shipbuilding industrial base and deliver on their commitments to support Navy’s increased demand for shipbuilding.

HII also said Thursday that the company is exploring methods to expand defense and commercial opportunities internationally and has created international partnerships to enhance technological innovations and maximize production efficiency. HII currently has international partnerships with Hyundai Heavy Industries and Babcock International Group to enhance throughput and strengthen the shipbuilding industrial base.