Huntington Ingalls Industry officials announced Wednesday that the company is acquiring the assets of W International near Charleston, South Carolina. The company currently builds modules used in Virginia Class submarines for General Dynamics Electric Boat.
The move is designed to increase production, said Jennifer Boykin, outgoing president of Newport News Shipbuilding and executive vice president of HII in Newport News.
“It represents an opportunity to increase our capacity overall so it will not affect the workforce here at Newport News,” she said. “In fact, we expect both sites to continue to grow.”
W International adds 500 employees and 480,000 square feet of manufacturing space to HII’s shipbuilding capacity. The deal is effective immediately. Workers in the South Carolina operation were told in meetings Wednesday, Boykin said.
The facility will focus on building modules used for Virginia Class and Columbia Class submarines.
Eventually the group will also build modules for Ford Class aircraft carriers, which are produced exclusively by HII at Newport News. HII canceled a contract with the company in 2022.
“One of the things that we're excited about with this acquisition is they do have a good shipbuilding ecosystem down there,” Boykin said. “The training for the workforce, everything we learn from every and any quality escape that we have will be shared at both sites.”
HII has had issues with quality. The company reported to the Navy that substandard welds were found on aircraft carriers and submarines at the Newport News facility.
The deal with W International comes as the industry struggles to meet the Navy’s production goals of building two submarines a year. The Biden administration also entered into a deal with Australia and the United Kingdom requiring the U.S. to build additional Virginia Class submarines.
“We have constantly assessed our capacity and really been looking at all opportunities to make sure that we have the capacity that we need to meet the build rate that the Navy requires,” Boykin said.
