February 1, 2018
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (Feb. 1, 2018)--Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (NYSE:HII) Newport News Shipbuilding division has lifted and mounted a 400-metric ton caisson unit into its new Joint Manufacturing Assembly Facility (JMAF).
The specialized fixture will “revolutionize how we build submarines for our country,” said Matt Needy, Newport News’ vice president of operations. “A fixture of this magnitude allows us to significantly improve construction efficiencies and shorten our production span times in support of our current Virginia-class submarine programs and future work on the Columbia-class submarine program.”
The massive fixture, standing over 80 feet high, is scheduled to be fully operational later this year. It will first be used to streamline the construction of the bow module for the Virginia-class submarine Utah (SSN 801).
The JMAF, which opened in 2017, was designed to support current and future production work on aircraft carriers and submarines.
HII is a global, all-domain defense provider. HII's mission is to deliver the world's most powerful ships and all-domain solutions in service of the nation, creating the advantage for our customers to protect peace and freedom around the world.
As the nation's largest military shipbuilder, and with a more than 135-year history of advancing U.S. national security, HII delivers critical capabilities extending from ships to unmanned systems, cyber, ISR, AI/ML and synthetic training. Headquartered in Virginia, HII's workforce is 44,000 strong.
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