ROME — Fincantieri is ready to build everything from corvettes and unmanned vessels to ice breakers and cable laying ships for the U.S. government as it rebounds from the cancellation of the Constellation frigate program, a senior official has said.
“We are ready to take on complex shipbuilding,” George Moutafis, the CEO of Fincantieri Marine Group, told Defense News.
Fincantieri was ramping up production of Constellation frigates last year at its Wisconsin yard for the U.S. Navy when the program was scrapped due to delays driven by the Navy’s request for design modifications.
The service is now ordering smaller FF(X) vessels from HII’s Ingalls yard which are based on a U.S. Coast Guard cutter design.
Last month Fincantieri instead received orders to build Marine Landing Vessels.
Moutafis said the firm was now looking beyond that order at future potential contracts.
“The Navy is working on the full and final mix of the Golden Fleet and the Small Surface Combatant segment could be 70-plus vessels,” he said.
“They are favoring the lighter FF(X) but I can see also other types of vessels becoming part of the segment — 20 of them could be smaller but extremely lethal corvettes, or even large, unmanned vessels at some point,” he said.
“Apart from Small Surface Combatants, we are ready to build ice breakers, cable layers, manned and unmanned aluminium boats,” he added.
“We are monitoring how that dynamic evolves. We are well positioned to serve that,” he said.
Moutafis said Fincantieri’s Marinette Marine yard was primed to be a part of U.S. naval fleet expansion.
“We have already got the facilities with about $800 million invested. We were upping our game to prepare for Small Surface Combatant production in Wisconsin. We have the workforce, about 3,000 strong,” he said.
“My first priority is ensure stability in the yards today and make the most of the Landing Ship opportunity. But we will be ready to jump in,” he added.
As Fincantieri gets to work building four U.S. Marine landing vessels, the Navy has issued a Request for Proposal for a Vessel Construction Manager (VCM) to oversee the program and act as a buffer between the Navy and the yard.
The Navy has said the VCM will be “responsible for managing the entire construction program, from the design phase through to vessel delivery and post-delivery support.”
“They are aspiring to empower the VCM to make decisions on schedule, which is the key. They want quality construction fast,” said Moutafis, adding, “The Navy will hand off the program to the VCM. It is a whole different ballgame.”
The key would be the Navy giving the VCM a final design, with no later tweaking, he said.
“They are planning for the design to be final and complete on the Landing Vessels. The aspiration is zero change,” he said.
“They want to simplify, not complicate things. The intent is good. Where do we fit in? We will deal with the VCM and respect the lines. The Landing Vessels is our awesome opportunity to go back to doing what we do best - building naval vessels in serial production,” he added.
Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.
