Eastern Shipbuilding Group, Panama City, Fla., has been selected by HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division to fabricate six structural units for the Navy’s future USS Philadelphia (LPD 32), a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock.
Production is underway, with deliveries to Ingalls’ Pascagoula, Miss., shipyard scheduled for the third and fourth quarters of 2027. The units will be incorporated into the ship’s final assembly at Ingalls.
The contract expands Eastern’s participation in Ingalls’ distributed shipbuilding program, which assigns selected fabrication work to partner yards to increase construction capacity. Eastern previously built units for Ingalls’ Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer program.
“Our team is fully engaged and ready to deliver these six complex modules on schedule in 2027. This collaboration showcases the strength of the Gulf Coast shipbuilding industrial base and underscores our shared commitment to national defense,” Joey D’Isernia, Eastern’s chairman and CEO, said in the Nov. 4 announcement.
In July, HII reported that Ingalls had installed the first grand blocks built by off-site fabrication partners for the future USS Thad Cochran (DDG 135). The three units were fabricated by Gulf Copper, Galveston, Texas, and Eastern and delivered before the ship’s keel authentication in October 2025. According to HII, the early deliveries allowed work to begin sooner in the ship’s construction sequence.
Ingalls began developing its distributed shipbuilding network in 2023. Its qualification process included technical capability assessments, workforce reviews, quality system verification and coordination with the Navy’s Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion and Repair Gulf Coast. Partner yards are integrated into Ingalls’ quality and material control systems, HII said.
