STURGEON BAY (NBC 26) — Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao toured Fincantieri Marine Group’s shipyards in Marinette and Sturgeon Bay this week, getting a firsthand look at the company’s shipbuilding operations and technology.
Cao met with company leaders and employees during the visit. He was joined by Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, Maritime Administration Administrator Stephen Carmel and Dr. Jerry Hendrix, OMB’s associate director of shipbuilding.
Fincantieri Marine Group CEO George Moutafis and Fincantieri Marinette Marine CEO Jan Allman briefed the delegation on the company’s shipbuilding programs, investments and long-term plans for its U.S. operations.
“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,” Moutafis said. “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.”
The delegation toured both Wisconsin shipyards, where employees demonstrated manufacturing and automation technologies used by the company.
In Marinette, the group saw Fincantieri’s automated panel line as well as demonstrations involving powered air-purifying respirators, collaborative robots known as cobots, and augmented and virtual reality tools.
According to Fincantieri, the technologies are being incorporated into production to help skilled trades workers work more safely and efficiently.
“It’s always great to visit our shipyards and watch the workers in action,” Cao said. “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 keep ours the greatest Navy in the world.”
In Sturgeon Bay, the delegation toured Fincantieri’s industrial operations and saw the capacity the company says allows its Wisconsin shipyards to work on multiple classes of vessels at the same time.
The visit comes as Fincantieri Marinette Marine prepares for additional work for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.
The company expects to begin construction on several medium landing ships, known as LSMs, following negotiations with TOTE Services, the program’s vessel construction manager.
In April, the Navy awarded the Marinette shipyard $30 million for long-lead materials for the LSM program. Fincantieri says the Navy directed initial work on the program, including four of the first vessels in the class, to the company’s Wisconsin shipyards
