Washington: The new chief executive of the US unit of South Korean industrial conglomerate Hanwha Group wants to restore naval shipbuilding at Philly Shipyard, once the acquisition of that business is finalised this fall.
Mike Smith, who took the top job at Hanwha Defence USA in August, acknowledged that winning US Navy shipbuilding contracts is “going to be challenging” for the shipyard, which currently builds ships for the Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration as well as commercial customers.
“I don’t see us building destroyers in Philadelphia,” he said during a briefing with reporters. “I do see us building the fleet the Navy needs next.”
See how we empower platforms and enable the Navy’s vision of Distributed Maritime Operations. That could include constructing large or medium-sized unmanned surface vessels, as well as “specialty ships” like icebreakers, replenishment oilers, naval training vessels and other auxiliary ships, Smith said.
Beyond the construction of new ships, the company could also pursue opportunities to build modules — essentially a smaller section of a ship — that would be incorporated into a Navy vessel during final assembly at a prime contractor’s shipyard, he said.
Smith said the company isn’t focused on one specific shipbuilding program, noting that many programs need “relief valves.”
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