Eastern Shipbuilding Group of Panama City, Florida, has been picked by HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division to build six structural units for the US Navy’s future amphibious transport dock USS Philadelphia (LPD 32), a San Antonio-class ship.
What the contract covers
- Eastern will fabricate six units (large hull modules) for LPD 32. Production has already started.
- The units are due at Ingalls’ shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, in the third and fourth quarters of 2027, where they will be joined into the ship during final assembly.
- The deal was announced on 4 November 2026.
Spreading the work across Gulf Coast yards
The order is part of Ingalls’ “distributed shipbuilding” programme, which hands selected fabrication work to qualified partner yards to add building capacity. Ingalls started building this network in 2023, checking each partner’s technical capability, workforce and quality systems together with the Navy’s Gulf Coast shipbuilding supervisors.
It is not Eastern’s first work for the programme. The Florida yard has already built units for Ingalls’ Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. In July, HII said Ingalls had installed the first grand blocks made off site, by Eastern and Gulf Copper of Galveston, Texas, for the future destroyer USS Thad Cochran (DDG 135). HII said those early deliveries let work start sooner in the ship’s construction.
Eastern’s chairman and CEO, Joey D’Isernia, said the team was ready to deliver the six modules on schedule in 2027 and described the work as a sign of the strength of the Gulf Coast shipbuilding base.
Why it matters
Shipyards worldwide are under pressure from full order books (see our report on the coming 2028 delivery crunch). Sharing module work among partner yards is one way US naval shipbuilders are trying to add capacity. Other yards are also winning US Navy work, such as Hanwha’s Philly Shipyard with its landing ship order.
Based on reporting by WorkBoat, 4 November 2026. First spotted via the SHIPBUILDING Facebook page.
