Groundbreaking for new facility

The new building will improve the first stage of ship construction at Marinette Marine and decrease ship module travel distance throughout the LCS construction process. The building will feature automation to increase efficiency and provide the capacity for storage of steel and other raw materials.

In addition to this groundbreaking, Marinette Marine also marked the opening of its professional center and the completion of a project to expand its main indoor ship construction building. This expansion project nearly doubles the building’s size and provides enough indoor space to simultaneously house two complete LCS hulls and parts for two additional ships.

These investments are part of a five-year plan by the shipyard’s parent company, Fincantieri, to modernize its U.S. shipbuilding operations, which will benefit the LCS program. In 2009, Marinette Marine had installed higher-capacity overhead cranes, plasma-cutting tables and pipe-bending machines to increase efficiency and capacity.

Marinette Marine and Lockheed Martin constructed and commissioned the nation’s first LCS, "USS Freedom", in 2008.
The ship successfully completed its first deployment in 2010 and is now based in its homeport of San Diego, Calif. The industry team is also constructing the Navy’s third LCS, "Fort Worth", which was launched and christened in December. The ship is more than 80 percent complete and remains on cost and on schedule for delivery in 2012.