HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division reached a key milestone in its distributed shipbuilding initiative with the installation of the first grand blocks for Thad Cochran (DDG 135), a Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. The blocks, comprising three units constructed by partner facilities Gulf Copper and Eastern Shipbuilding, mark a significant step in integrating offsite fabrication into the shipyard’s production process.
The units were delivered ahead of the ship’s keel authentication, demonstrating successful early-stage production by external partners and supporting increased throughput at Ingalls. The milestone highlights the growing role of distributed shipbuilding in enhancing efficiency and capacity across destroyer programmes.
“This milestone reflects the strength of our partner network and the efficiencies of distributed shipbuilding for our destroyer production line,” said Ingalls Shipbuilding President Brian Blanchette. “The DDG 135 pilot is proof that we can expand capacity across the program while allowing our skilled Ingalls shipbuilders to focus on final assembly, integration and testing.”
Since 2023, Ingalls has expanded its network of qualified fabrication partners through a structured evaluation process, including technical capability assessments, workforce reviews, and quality system verification. All partner facilities are integrated into HII’s quality and material-control systems to ensure alignment with shipyard production standards.
Building on the progress of DDG 135, outsourced work is also underway for John F. Lehman (DDG 137) and Telesforo Trinidad (DDG 139), involving five partner companies supporting destroyer construction. A total of 32 units for DDG 137 and 37 units for DDG 139 have been contracted, with initial units for DDG 137 already delivered ahead of fabrication milestones.
“Early deliveries for DDG 137 units show the model is not only repeatable but scalable,” stated Blanchette. “Pushing work outside yard increases capacity. We have more hands working on more units that enables more work to be done in parallel and can contribute to accelerating the build by the Ingalls team. I’m confident as more partners come online and produce larger, more outfitted units, over time we expect to gain additional schedule efficiency while expanding capacity across multiple ship classes.”
HII currently has 40 ships under construction across its shipyards and expects to deliver five ships over the next 12 months, including an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. The company continues to scale its distributed shipbuilding model to increase production throughput and meet growing demand, with plans to expand activity further this year.
