Once a World War II powerhouse, the Philadelphia Shipyard fell into decades of disrepair. Hanwha Defense USA CEO Michael Coulter shares how the company has grown the workforce from hundreds to over 2,000 — and why U.S. naval contracts are now in its sights.
Hanwha has seen a lot of investment in the Philadelphia shipyard. Can we expect to see U.S. naval ships built at the Hanwha facility in Philadelphia?
Absolutely. So Hanwha, leading global aerospace and defense company, certainly leading global aerospace and defense company in Korea, leading shipbuilder in the world. We are intent on bringing that industrial strength from Korea here to the United States. Philly Shipyard — back in World War II was a leading shipyard in the world. And since that time, fallen into disrepair, been underinvested in.
We acquired it about a year and a half ago. We are in the process of reclaiming land to grow the footprint, growing the workforce. We’ve grown from hundreds to over 2,000 workers in Philly. And at the same time, we’re bringing the process and technology from Korea to the United States, which will allow us to scale not just commercial, but naval shipbuilding here.
So we’re currently building national security multi-mission vessels from MARAD. We have a plan to ramp that into — we just won our first Navy contract for design of the NGLS ship, which we intend to do in Philly, and are talking with the Navy about further maturing the yard to grow naval shipbuilding capacity with auxiliaries and one-day combatants.
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