Brenda Marie Rivers
Huntington Ingalls Industries has finished construction of a 22K-square-foot building that will be part of the military shipbuilder's new campus in Hampton, Virginia, for the prototyping, manufacturing and testing of unmanned technology platforms.
HII said Monday its employees commenced operations at the initial facility for the Unmanned Systems Center of Excellence in late December and the company expects the main and second facility to complete the structural development phase by the end of this year.
The first building will house assembly work on the hull structure of Orca, an extra large unmanned undersea vehicle Boeing and HII are developing for the U.S. Navy.
“Opening this initial facility immediately expands our unmanned systems capability and helps support the increasing needs of our customers who defend our national security," said Andy Green, president of HII's technical solutions division and two-time Wash100 Award recipient.
The company kicked off its project to build a 157K-square-foot complex in September of last year with support from the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the Hampton Roads Alliance and the local government.
