China has over 230 times the shipbuilding capacity than the U.S. The Navy wants U.S. shipbuilders to improve schedules, increase capacity, and reduce costs.
As China continues to rapidly build out its naval shipbuilding operations, expanding its fleet at a faster pace than the U.S., Navy Secretary John Phelan is encouraging American shipyards to “act like we’re at war” in terms of production and readiness.
The Office of Naval Intelligence reports that China currently has over 230 times the shipbuilding capacity than the U.S.
“Modern weapons systems take 10 years or more to design. You’d never accept that in private markets, and neither will we,” Phelan said this week, pushing back on the often decades-long acquisition model. “Our adversaries are not slowing down. We must evolve faster.”
Phelan is also focused on accelerating the adoption of artificial intelligence and autonomy technologies across the industrial base. As such, the Navy announced Tuesday a $448 million strategic investment in the Shipbuilding Operating System (Ship OS) at the first Department of the Navy Rapid Capabilities Office Industry Day in D.C.
The Navy is partnering with Palantir Technologies, a software and data company that has performed other contracted work for U.S. defense agencies.
According to the Navy, Ship OS will leverage Palantir’s software to bring modern best practices to the complex, data heavy environment of Navy shipbuilding. The initiative will aggregate data from enterprise resource planning systems, legacy databases, and operational sources to identify bottlenecks, streamline engineering workflows, and support proactive risk mitigation, providing a unified, data-driven approach to production management that enables faster, more informed decisions.
“This investment provides the resources our shipbuilders, shipyards, and suppliers need to modernize their operations and succeed in meeting our nation’s defense requirements,” Phelan said. “By enabling industry to adopt AI and autonomy tools at scale, we’re helping the shipbuilding industry improve schedules, increase capacity, and reduce costs. This is about doing business smarter and building the industrial capability our Navy and nation require.”
The initial investment is focused on Submarine Industrial Base shipbuilders, shipyards, and critical suppliers. The Navy said future expansion beyond the Submarine Industrial Base will be systematic and informed by lessons learned, with the Navy validating approaches and developing proven implementation strategies that can be adapted for surface ship programs.
What Mississippi’s Navy Shipbuilder Has to Say
Huntington Ingalls Industries, or HII, is America’s largest military shipbuilder employing over 44,000 employees who construct nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines to surface combatants and amphibious destroyers. Its work is segmented across three divisions: Mission Technologies, Newport News Shipbuilding and Ingalls Shipbuilding.
Ingalls, located in Pascagoula, employees nearly 11,000 shipbuilders and has been constructing ships for the U.S. Navy for more than 87 years.
An HII spokesperson told Magnolia Tribune that the company appreciates its partnership with the Navy and looks forward to exploring the opportunities in the Shipbuilding Operating System initiative.
“As this is a Navy-led effort, we respectfully refer you to them for specific details,” the spokesperson said.
HII’s spokesperson did point to the announcement earlier this year that they were partnering with C3 AI, an Enterprise AI application software company, to expand digital technologies and apply artificial intelligence to accelerate shipbuilding throughput at HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding and Ingalls Shipbuilding divisions.
The partnership is being used across the company’s shipbuilding operations including in the areas of planning, operations, supply chain and labor allocation. HII said these efforts are expected to accelerate production and support the U.S. Navy’s fleet readiness needs. The collaboration will also include opportunities in uncrewed vehicle production and sustainment.
Ingalls has a significant backlog of work for the U.S. Navy due in part to the company being awarded multi-ship U.S. Navy procurement contracts in September 2024 totaling nearly $9.5 billion for the construction of three San Antonio-class (LPD 17) amphibious ships and a contract modification for the next America-class (LHA 6) large-deck amphibious ship.
Ingalls’ shipbuilders will construct LPDs 33, 34, 35 and LHA 10 for the U.S. Navy.
As previously reported, the combined procurement contract was the first of its kind for amphibious ships. According to Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), by using this strategy, as authorized by Congress, the Navy is projected to achieve more than $901 million in cost avoidance as compared to the use of annual contracts.
-- Article credit to Frank Corder for the Magnolia Tribune --
