Photo caption: An MH-60S Sea Hawk, left, and an E-2D Hawkeye, approach the flight deck of the world’s largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), during carrier qualifications, Sept. 20, 2024. Gerald R. Ford is underway in the Atlantic Ocean to further develop core unit capabilities during its basic phase of the optimized fleet response plan. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Maxwell Orlosky)
Sept. 27, 2024
HII’s Weekly News Digest is compiled every Friday by the Corporate Communications team to summarize and highlight news stories of significance to the company.
Ingalls Secures $9.6 Billion Amphib Award: USNI News reported on Wednesday that HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding has been awarded $9.6 billion in contracts to build four amphibious warships, including three Flight II San Antonio-class amphibious warships and an America-class big-deck amphibious ship. The new award comes following an effort from the Marines and members of Congress to push the Pentagon and the Navy to commit to a minimum of 31 amphibious warships to meet the Marine Corps’ minimum amphibious lift requirement. The awards include LPDs 33-35 as well as Helmand Province (LHA 10). Defense Daily reported on Wednesday that the contracts include several incentives to help HII retain and grow its Gulf Coast workforce. Tom Rivers, the executive director for amphibious, auxiliary and sealift programs at the Program Executive Office Ships, said part of the contract includes a unique Enterprise Labor Incentive to ensure HII has the right blend of journeymen and apprentices needed to build these ships into the 2030s. WLOX reported on Wednesday that the contracts are good news for both Ingalls and the surrounding communities. Jackson County Economic Development Foundation Deputy Director Mary Martha Henson said the positive impacts of contracts of this size will ripple throughout the Gulf Coast.
Congress Passes Three-Month Stopgap Spending Bill: Breaking Defense reported on Wednesday that Congress passed a stopgap bill to extend federal funding until Dec. 20, averting a government shutdown before the fiscal year ends on Sept 30. This continuing resolution maintains existing funding levels and omits additional requests, such as $2 billion for Virginia-class submarine construction. Politico reported on Wednesday that Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., chair of the defense spending panel, said it’s crucial to U.S. national security that congressional leaders close out funding negotiations in December. “It only empowers our enemies and wastes money,” he said of the stopgap. If Congress doesn’t clear final spending bills by the new year, funding negotiations will begin to collide with talks to avert two other fiscal cliffs: the debt limit that’s waived until early January and the expiration of many of the 2017 tax cuts at the end of next year.
HII Self-Reports Substandard Welds: USNI News reported on Thursday that HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding division informed the Department of Justice that there may be faulty welds on non-critical components located on in-service submarines and aircraft carriers. The issue was discovered by NNS’ internal quality assurance systems. Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition Nickolas Guertin wrote in a memo to Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti that based on the NNS’ assessment of the welds, the shipyard notified the Department of Justice over the issue.
Ships For America Act Proposal Gets Bipartisan Support: USNI News reported on Wednesday that a comprehensive bill that aims to restore U.S. civilian and defense shipbuilding capacity, build back the nation’s shipyard workforce and crew those ships with American mariners, will soon be introduced in both houses of Congress with strong bipartisan support, the chair of the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on Airland said Wednesday. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said the 200-page bill, known as the Ships for America Act, has more than 200 members from both houses supporting it and will likely be introduced following the November election. Kelly and Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., chair of the House Armed Services Readiness subcommittee, have been meeting “with industry – shipbuilding, operators, labor” to gain support for the bill. Breaking Defense reported on Wednesday that Kelly and Waltz support “a maritime czar of sorts — a single individual inside the executive branch whose authorities span across maritime issues related to both the Defense and Transportation Departments,” according to the article.
Social Media Highlight Of The Week Posted Thursday on HII’s LinkedIn page: “HII is proud to return as a partner for the 29th Women of Color STEM Conference in Detroit, Mich., from October 3-5, 2024, where we’ll be celebrating our award winners and empowering women to pursue careers related to science, technology, engineering, and math. If you can’t make it in person, be sure to check in online! Learn more here: https://intouch.ccgmag.com/mpage/woc-stem-conference-home.” |
Hanwha Drops Bid To Buy Austal: The Maritime Executive reported on Wednesday that South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean is discontinuing its pursuit of Austal after reports of repeated financial offers to take the Australia-based shipbuilder private. Austal had publicly rejected the offer repeatedly saying it doubted the combination could win regulatory approval in Australia and possibly the United States due to the national security nature of the business. The Australian Financial Review reported that a letter from Hanwha Ocean’s CEO to the board of Austal noted the decision to not pursue the offer was due to a “wholly unreasonable condition of due diligence access.” AFR reported that Austal’s board insisted on a $5 million termination fee that the board could invoke at any time if it determined regulatory approval would not be obtained. Breaking Defense reported on Thursday that the proposal, announced by both companies in dueling press releases in September last year, would have seen the world’s 19th largest defense contractor add the 80th largest defense contractor to its portfolio. It would also have bolstered the increasingly close defense and national security ties between Seoul and Canberra, following Australia’s potentially $7 billion deal to buy Hanwha’s Redback land vehicle, and represent yet another wave of growth for South Korea’s defense industry.
HII’s Weekly News Digest is produced by HII’s Corporate Communications team and posted to Homeport every Friday.
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