The U.S. Navy announced Friday that Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula has been selected to build a new class of small warships.
The U.S. Navy said in a press release that the FF(X) frigates are based on Ingalls’ Legend-class national security cutters and are designed for rapid, cost-effective production.
A spokesman for Ingalls Shipbuilding’s parent company, Huntington Ingalls Industries, said the South Mississippi shipyard has the capabilities and skilled workforce to build the new ship.
“We have the workforce we need to meet requirements,” the company said, and it will continue to invest in workforce development to meet future demand.
The plan is to begin building the first ship once the contract is finalized. The Navy has not released the cost of the first ship, which will be smaller and more nimble and can handle tasks that larger ships cannot, such as mine clearance or anti-submarine warfare.
“Our goal is clear: to have the first hull in the water in 2028,” said Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan.
The new warship will be built at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula and is based on the shipyard’s 20-year history of building national security patrol boats. In this file photo, the Munro, the sixth U.S. Coast Guard National Security Cutter (NSC) built by Ingalls Shipbuilding, spent three days in the Gulf of Mexico testing all of the ship’s systems.
Ingalls Shipbuilding already builds naval destroyers (DDGs) and amphibious craft (LPDs) at Pascagoula Shipyard in Jackson County, which has built 10 national security cutters for the Coast Guard through 2023 over nearly 20 years. The company is also modernizing the Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyers through technology upgrades.
HII President and CEO Chris Kastner said that with the new ship, “Speed is important, and NSC ship designs are stable and producible and will achieve predictable schedules. I am confident in the Ingalls team’s execution of this plan and our continued efforts with our partners to successfully expand the U.S. shipbuilding industrial base to meet Navy needs.”
HII has invested more than $1 billion in infrastructure, facilities and tooling at Ingalls Shipbuilding and is working with smaller shipyards south of the Gulf to build some of the components destined for Pascagoula.
Ingalls’ West Shore Shipyard in Pascagoula is shown. The shipyard was selected by the U.S. Navy to build its first small warship,
