All Fincantieri business in the United States
After the 10 new FFG (X) missile frigates, Fincantieri Marinette Group – subsidiary of the Italian group – has been chosen again by the US Navy to develop the Lusv, large unmanned ships
Another blow scored by Fincantieri in the United States after winning the race for the future US Navy FFG (X) frigates last May.
The Department of Defense and the US Navy have awarded the US subsidiary of Fincantieri, Marinette Marine (FMM), a contract worth $ 7 million to develop the design and engineering of the Large Unmanned Surface Vessel (Lusv). In other words, future large “unmanned” surface ships, capable of operating without crew on board.
THE CONTRACT FOR LUSV
The United States Navy has selected Fincantieri Marinette Marine along with five other companies. These are Austal USA, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Bollinger Shipyards, Lockheed Martin and Gibbs & Cox.
Each of these will develop the base project by August 2021.
The contract provides for the option for a further study phase to develop detail engineering, which if exercised would extend the duration of the work until May 2022, reads the note released by the Trieste shipbuilding group.
AFTER 10 FRIGATES FFG (X)
As the company explains, the award process will follow the tender pattern for the US Navy's 10 new FFG (X) missile frigates. In fact, at the beginning of May, Fincantieri Marinette Marine won the contract which, including the options, has a total value of 5.5 billion dollars.
The delivery of the first frigate is scheduled for July 2026, then gradually all the others.
“Fincantieri won the tender by beating fierce US antagonists such as Huntington Ingalls Industries and General Dynamics Bath Iron Works”, underlined Gianluca Zappa on Start.
Thanks to the investment by the US Navy, 9,000 new jobs will be created in all the related industries of the yards in Wisconsin. The President of the United States Trump had remarked on the occasion of his visit to the FMM construction sites in June.
SPRINTA FINCANTIERI MARINE GROUP
Fmm is part of the Fincantieri Marine Group, led by Dario Deste, which includes two other shipyards.
Fincantieri Marinette Marine designs and builds military ships and in particular the Freedom class Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) for the US Navy; Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding, shipyard at Sturgeon Bay, focused on the construction, repair and conversion of merchant ships and offshore support vessels and Fincantieri ACE Marine, a production site specializing in the construction of small and medium-sized aluminum boats for the US Coast Guard and builder of Response Boat-Medium.
As AnalysisDifesa recalled, “Since 2008 the company has invested more than $ 180 million to modernize its three yards in Wisconsin. Since then, hiring and training more than 1,000 people, with a total workforce of around 2,500 people in the three sites as well as more than 350 contractor firms ”.
At the moment about thirty ships are under construction or in the Marinette portfolio.
WHAT FINCANTIERI DOES FOR THE AMERICAN NAVY
In addition to the recent milestone of the FFG (X) frigates, the Group is also developing the Littoral Combat Ships program for the US Navy, which involves the construction of 16 ships (10 of which have already been delivered). And the construction of 4 Multi-Mission Surface Combatants (MMSC) units, destined for the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as part of the United States Foreign Military Sales.
RELATIONS WITH US POLITICIANS
Last year, the US subsidiary of Fincantieri paid around € 26,800 to political parties in the United States. Radiocor reported this in June , when the Italian parent company reported it in the written responses to shareholders published in view of the budget meeting.
“Fincantieri does not make any payments to Italian or foreign political parties, foundations or politicians and has no credit towards them”. Wrote the shipbuilding giant of Trieste.
Different rules, therefore, for the US subsidiary, one of the main builders of medium-sized ships in the United States.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/tutti-gli-affari-di-fincantieri-negli-stati-uniti/ on Tue, 08 Sep 2020 13:10:06 +0000.