Fincantieri hosts acting Navy Secretary at Wisconsin shipyard

Fincantieri Marine Group welcomed Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao to its Marinette and Sturgeon Bay shipyards this week for a firsthand look at the company’s U.S. shipbuilding capabilities, advanced manufacturing technologies and industrial capacity.

Acting Secretary Cao met with company leaders and employees during the visit. He was joined by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought, Maritime Administration (MARAD) Administrator Stephen Carmel, Dr. Jerry Hendrix, OMB’s associate director of shipbuilding and Eugenio Santagata, General Manager of the Fincantieri’s Naval Vessels Division.

“It was an honor to have Secretary Cao here to meet our workforce, witness our advanced technologies and to see how our investments have enabled us to quickly scale up construction efforts to deliver vessels the U.S. Navy needs,” said George Moutafis, CEO of Fincantieri Marine Group. “And it was great to have both OMB and MARAD leaders here in Wisconsin to better understand the untapped national asset we have in our system of shipyards.”

Moutafis and Jan Allman, CEO of Fincantieri Marinette Marine, briefed the delegation on shipbuilding programs, investments, and its long-term commitment to the U.S. maritime industrial base. The visit highlighted the company’s leadership in digital shipbuilding, robotics, and advanced manufacturing.

The delegation then toured both the Marinette and Sturgeon Bay shipyards, where employees demonstrated advanced technologies, manufacturing and automation solutions introduced in the United States by Fincantieri.

“It’s always great to visit our shipyards and watch the workers in action,” said Cao. “They are the backbone of American shipbuilding. Our Navy needs more skilled men and women like those I had the opportunity to interact with today to keeps ours the greatest Navy in the world.”

In Marinette, the delegation saw the automated panel line, as well as demonstrations from employees of the powered air-purifying respirators (PAPRs), collaborative robots known as cobots, and augmented and virtual reality tools. These technologies are being integrated into production to help the highly-skilled trades workers work more safely and efficiently. In Sturgeon Bay, the delegation witnessed the significant industrial capacity available within Fincantieri’s Wisconsin operations enabling the company to scale up and work on multiple classes of ships in parallel.

Fincantieri Marinette Marine expects to begin construction soon on several medium landing ships (LSMs) for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, following negotiations with TOTE Services, the program’s vessel construction manager. In April, the Navy awarded the shipyard $30 million for long-lead materials for the LSM program. The Navy directed initial LSM work, including four of the first vessels in the class, to Fincantieri’s Wisconsin shipyards.