HII's Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Miss., has been awarded a $283 million U.S. Navy contract to perform lead yard support activities for the new FF(X)-class frigate program, the Pentagon announced Tuesday.
The contract covers procurement of long lead time material, design work, and pre-construction activities for the first ship, including cutting and shaping raw material to support the main structure foundation and overall construction sequencing plan. Work is expected to be completed by April 2028.
The cost-plus-award-fee contract was not competitively procured, with the Pentagon citing "unusual and compelling urgency" under 10 U.S. Code 3204(a)(2).
"We are proud of our past performance in engineering, design, and production of warships that meet U.S. military standards, a performance that gave the Navy confidence to select the national security cutter as the basis for the next small surface combatant and to choose Ingalls as the program's lead yard," Brian Blanchette, Ingalls Shipbuilding president, said in a statement. "We are excited to partner with the Navy to bring these preproduction steps under contract to accelerate delivery of the frigates that our warfighters need."
The award follows the Navy's December 2025 selection of Ingalls Shipbuilding to design and build the FF(X), leveraging the proven design of the Legend-class national security cutter (NSC). Ingalls previously delivered 10 NSCs to the U.S. Coast Guard, and the company said in a press release that it plans to apply the same build sequence to the frigate program.
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The FF(X) program emerged after the Navy cancelled the Constellation-class frigate program, which had faced significant cost growth and schedule delays. The Navy opted for a smaller, less complex design built on a proven hull form as a lower-risk alternative.
The first FF(X) ship is projected to cost $1.429 billion and will be delivered by June 2030, according to the Navy's FY2027 budget request.
A total of 50 to 65 ships, built across multiple flights, are planned for construction, Naval News reported. To accelerate production, the program will use a modular approach distributed across several shipyards.
The new frigates will be constructed alongside existing production lines at the Pascagoula, Miss., shipyard, which currently supports DDG 51 Flight III destroyers, LHA assault ships, LPD Flight II amphibious transport docks, and modernization work on Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyers, HII said.
Ingalls has invested more than $1 billion in infrastructure, facilities, and tooling upgrades to meet Navy demand and support next-generation platform construction, according to HII. The company is also working to expand U.S. shipbuilding capacity more broadly, including increasing distributed shipbuilding partners, collaborating with international manufacturers, and evaluating the addition of another domestic shipyard, it said.
The FF(X) is designed to be a smaller, more agile surface combatant intended to complement larger multi-mission warships and expand operational flexibility. The Navy has characterized the class as a critical component of its future fleet architecture.
