Jane Edwards
Fincantieri CEO Pierroberto Folgiero said the Italian company’s Marinette Marine shipyard in Wisconsin plans to apply the processes used to construct luxury cruise ships in Italy as it builds Constellation-class guided-missile frigates for the U.S. Navy, Defense News reported Tuesday.
“We aim to use more preconstruction on land at Marinette, which means building modules before adding them to the vessel, meaning less work in the dock and more work on land — which is much more efficient,” Folgiero told the publication in an interview.
“It is the model we use for our cruise ships at Monfalcone and other merchant shipyards in the group. We are transferring the technique to our naval yards in Italy, and we have carried out a study to make changes at Marinette. We have sent a team and plan to put the changes into effect in 2023,” he added.
Fincantieri Marinette Marine is building frigates for the U.S. Navy under a contract awarded in 2020 and expects to deliver to the service up to 20 frigates based on the company’s FREMM vessels.
“We’ve invested more than $300 million in our Wisconsin shipyards to meet the Navy’s requirement of two frigates a year, and it’s important we continue to improve productivity,” Folgiero said.
He told the publication that Fincantieri intends to strengthen its cooperation with Leonardo through their joint venture Orizzonte Sistemi Navali to improve integration between combat systems and platforms.
