U.S. Yard to Build Four Navy Ships for Saudi Arabia

The U.S. Navy has awarded a Lockheed Martin-led team, which includes Fincantieri Marinette Marine, a multi-billion dollar order for the construction of four Multi-Mission Surface Combatants ships, as part of the country’s Foreign Military Sales program. These ships will be for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Fincantieri will build the ships at the Marinette yard in Wisconsin, and the contract is worth approximately $1.3 billion dollars for Fincantieri Marinette Marine.

The Multi-Mission Surface Combatant is a lethal and highly-maneuverable, multi-mission surface combatant, which features the flexibility of the Freedom-variant Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) steel mono-hull, built by the same team for the U.S. Navy. The vessels will have an increased range of 5,000 nautical miles and speeds in excess of 30 knots, making them capable of littoral and open ocean operation.

Nine LCS vessels have already been delivered to the U.S. Navy, and there are currently seven ships in various stages of construction. Lockheed Martin and Fincantieri Marinette Marine, together with the naval architect Gibbs & Cox and over 800 suppliers in 42 states, are already cooperating for the U.S. Navy’s LCS program.

Fincantieri Marine Group, which owns Fincantieri Marinette Marine and two more yards again in the Great Lakes region, Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding and Fincantieri Ace Marine, has invested more than $180 million to modernize the Wisconsin shipyards since 2008, hiring and training more than 1,000 people, with a total workforce in the three sites of about 2,500 people and more than 350 contractors.