Eric Chewning, executive vice president of Maritime Systems and Corporate Strategy at HII, joined the CavasShips Podcast, presented by Defense & Aerospace Reports, to discuss how HII is addressing a central U.S. national security challenge with direct implications for long-term shipbuilding capacity, execution performance, and allied demand: strengthening U.S. and partner navies by integrating maritime platforms and enabling technologies across all domains while rebuilding the shipbuilding industrial base at speed and scale.
Chewning framed HII’s approach around three reinforcing priorities that together form the company’s vision for the future fleet: delivering the core fleet, scaling autonomous systems, and integrating mission technologies that connect platforms into a survivable, lethal, all-domain force. Collectively, these priorities reflect a broader shift in U.S. defense strategy toward industrial resilience, allied capacity, and accelerated technology adoption.
“As America’s leading sea power company, we have a unique role to play in each of those three elements,” Chewning told the podcast. “At HII, strategy and execution have to stay tightly linked. That means aligning industrial capacity, workforce development, enabling technology, and investment to deliver real advantage to the warfighter.”
Throughput and the industrial base
Chewning emphasized that increasing shipyard throughput remains HII’s top operational priority, with direct implications for backlog execution and delivery timelines. With 40 ships under construction or undergoing modernization at Newport News, Virginia, and Pascagoula, Mississippi, the company is focused on accelerating production while expanding capacity beyond its traditional shipyard footprint.
“We’ve already seen a 14 percent increase in throughput in 2025, and we’re anticipating at least a 15 percent increase in 2026,” he said. “Continuing that increase is the number-one priority for the company, and we’re attacking the challenge on multiple fronts.”
Those efforts include targeted investments in new facilities and infrastructure; adoption of Industry 4.0 manufacturing technologies such as digital engineering, AI, automation, robotics, and additive manufacturing; and a significant expansion of distributed shipbuilding.
Distributed shipbuilding shifts defined portions of ship construction out of HII’s primary yards and into a network of qualified partner shipyards and suppliers across the United States. By modularizing work and executing it in parallel across the broader industrial base, HII can apply more labor hours simultaneously, reduce production bottlenecks, and scale capacity without relying solely on incremental workforce growth inside its own yards.
In 2026, HII plans to outsource more than two million labor hours to partner yards, representing roughly a 30 percent increase.
“Sometimes you can bring the workforce to the yard,” Chewning explained. “Sometimes you have to bring the work out of the yard to where the workforce is. That’s how you unlock additional throughput while creating opportunity across the industrial base.”
From platforms to integrated capability
Beyond shipbuilding execution, Chewning highlighted how HII is integrating autonomous systems and mission technologies to deliver operational advantage beyond the individual platform.
“The future fleet is about how crewed and uncrewed systems operate together across domains,” he said.
As an example, Chewning described how emerging mission technologies could enable a next-generation Long-Range Joint Fires capability. In this construct, a U.S. Navy amphibious warship, the Navy’s newest frigate, or an allied navy ship deploys alongside a set of HII ROMULUS uncrewed surface vessels. Controlled by HII’s Odyssey autonomy suite and Minotaur mission management software, the ROMULUS systems operate at extended range, providing sensor coverage beyond the host ship’s organic capabilities.
By fusing Minotaur’s air- and space-based operational sensor data with maritime data collected by ROMULUS, the manned warship can detect, target, and engage adversaries at greater standoff distances. The resulting kill chain improves lethality and survivability while reducing risk to sailors, particularly in highly contested environments. Chewning noted that AI-enabled mission technologies will continue to expand real-time decision-making and operational flexibility.
“That’s where the real advantage comes from,” he said. “It’s not just the platform—it’s how you connect sensors, autonomy, and effects across the battlespace.”
Partnerships, readiness, and allied capacity
The conversation also explored HII’s strategic partnerships, including collaboration with close allies and, in some cases, potential competitors, to rebuild a global maritime industrial base and accelerate manned–unmanned teaming across allied fleets. These partnerships are designed to expand industrial capacity, reduce supply-chain risk, and extend the relevance of HII’s platforms and technologies across multiple navies.
Chewning pointed to HII’s collaboration with Babcock International as a representative example. Under a memorandum of understanding, HII’s REMUS unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs) will be paired with Babcock’s submarine Weapon Handling and Launch Systems to enable autonomous launch and recovery the UUV through submarine torpedo tubes. The initiative builds on a strategic partnership that began in 2023 and follows the U.S. Navy’s first successful forward-deployed torpedo-tube launch and recovery of an HII REMUS from a Virginia-class submarine.
Babcock’s weapon handling systems are already fielded across multiple allied submarine fleets, broadening the potential applicability of the capability.
Chewning also highlighted AUKUS as a key example of how industrial partnerships translate into operational readiness — not just production output. While much public attention has focused on submarine production rates and platform transfer, he emphasized that forward infrastructure, workforce development, and sustainment capacity in Australia are equally critical.
“I think AUKUS is a really good example of this,” he said. “A lot of the attention has focused on submarine production rates and the transfer of capability to Australia. But if you take a step back, the operational readiness that comes from having infrastructure in Australia is part of the solution — not just intermediate maintenance, but depot-level capability in theater. That drives readiness and improves our wartime footing.”
Chewning described this effort internally as “Pillar One A,” encompassing the workforce, supply chain, and infrastructure required to support submarine operations and enable interoperability across U.S. and U.K. nuclear regulatory environments. He noted that the requirement for dual interoperability was a key reason the Babcock partnership made sense early in the AUKUS pathway.
Urgency and execution
“There has to be a sense of urgency around everything we do,” Chewning stated. “HII wants to make sure we’re meeting and delivering on our commitments to the U.S. Navy and the warfighter.”
Throughout the interview, Chewning returned to urgency as a defining theme — both in building ships and in delivering integrated, enabling technologies and capabilities.
“First and foremost, it’s how does the country win? How does Team America win?” he said. “As America’s leading sea power company, we have an obligation to help create an ecosystem that works.”
Listeners can hear the full discussion on the CavasShips Podcast below.
