Biggest U.S Shipbuilder

The biggest U.S. shipbuilder is Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. (HII). It is the largest military shipbuilding company in the country, with around 44,000 employees and $11.5 billion in revenue as of 2024.

It ranked no. 375 on the Fortune 500 and is a major provider of shipbuilding and other professional services to the U.S. Government and partners in the industry.

In 2022, the company changed its branding name to HII.

The biggest U.S shipbuilder has three major shipbuilding divisions: Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia, Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi, and Mission Technologies.

The company was named after the founders of the shipbuilding branches; Collis Potter Huntington, the founder of Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, and Robert Ingersoll Ingalls Sr., who laid the foundations of Ingalls Shipbuilding.

It was founded on March 31, 2011, and since then has expanded its business by acquiring UniversalPegasus International, the S.M. Stoller Corporation, Camber Corporation, Novonics, the Columbia Group’s Engineering Solutions division, G2 Inc., Alion Science and Technology, and Fulcrum IT Services.

In 2016, it created a third division, now called Mission Technologies, based in McLean, Virginia, with over 100 facilities around the world.

Let us look at the company’s shipbuilding divisions and the work they undertake.

Ingalls Shipbuilding

This division was founded in 1938, on the east bank of the Pascagoula River, Mississippi. It built commercial ships till the 1950s and then started bidding on Navy work.

It has over 11,000 employees and is a principal contributor to the economic growth of Alabama.

Ingalls has constructed and maintained amphibious ships, destroyers and cutters of the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy.

It is the biggest supplier of U.S. Navy surface combatants.

Newport News Shipbuilding

Established in 1886, this division is headquartered in Newport News, Virginia and is the country’s only designer, builder and provider of refuelling services for nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and one of the only two shipyards which designs and manufactures nuclear-powered submarines.

It has repaired more than 800 ships for the U.S. Navy and also for other clients.

Mission Technologies

This division offers U.S unified combatant command support, fleet support of the U.S Navy, USAF and Air National Guard Training Support, software engineering and IT solutions, DoD training, unmanned systems, Department of Energy Nuclear Operations, nuclear fabrication, and oil and gas services.

Key Projects of the Biggest U.S Shipbuilder

The biggest U.S. shipbuilder is designing and constructing the biggest aircraft carriers in the world, the Gerald R. Ford Class.

Newport News Shipbuilding also provides inactivation services for nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and in 2018, it completed the procedure of inactivation of Enterprise, the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

It is also a major shipbuilding partner in building Columbia-class submarines, which are to replace the Ohio-class.

HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding is the only shipyard which undertakes refuelling and complex overhaul (RCOH) work on aircraft carriers, performed just once during a carrier’s 50-year life span.

It completed the overhaul of the first 6 Nimitz-class ships, namely, USS Nimitz, USS Carl Vinson, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, USS Theodore Roosevelt, USS Abraham Lincoln and USS George Washington. In 2024, it performed this work on the 7th ship in the class, USS John C. Stennis.

It also provided the U.S Coast Guard with Legend-class National Security Cutters, which are to replace the Hamilton-class that began service in the 1960s.

The company is known for unmanned solutions for marine research purposes, defence and also for commercial applications.

The biggest U.S shipbuilder serves customers in 30 nations and also offers design, autonomy, manufacturing, testing, operations and sustainment of unmanned systems, including unmanned underwater vehicles, unmanned surface vessels etc.

HII’s REMUS UUVs or autonomous marine robots have advanced sensors and payloads for collecting important information for several applications.

In 2024, Mission Technologies got a contract from the Navy to develop enhanced capabilities for the Mk 41 and Mk 57 vertical launching systems onboard U.S Navy surface ships.

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