HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division has expanded its distributed shipbuilding strategy to include modular unit construction for the U.S. Navy’s amphibious transport dock program, starting with Philadelphia (LPD 32).
The company said the move extends an approach it has used in its destroyer program, where structural units are built by partner yards and then shipped to Ingalls for assembly and integration.
“Expanding distributed shipbuilding into the LPD program is a critical step in scaling capacity to meet rising fleet demand,” Ingalls Shipbuilding President Brian Blanchette said. “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.”
According to HII, eight structural units for Philadelphia (LPD 32) have been awarded to two partner shipbuilders and are already in early production. HII said it expects the model to increase parallel construction and reduce scheduling pressure at its Pascagoula, Mississippi, yard by moving selected work to external partners while keeping complex assembly and integration in-house.
HII pointed to its Flight III destroyer program as an example, saying partner-built units for Thad Cochran (DDG 135) arrived ahead of the ship’s October 2025 keel authentication and supported early-sequence work.
The expansion comes as U.S. shipbuilders face ongoing pressure to increase output to meet Navy fleet requirements, with industrial base capacity and workforce constraints frequently cited as limiting factors. HII said it doubled its distributed shipbuilding workload last year and plans to increase outsourced shipbuilding hours by another 30% in 2026, with amphibious ships accounting for a significant share of the growth.
