Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) recently completed the first phase of its Unmanned Systems Center of Excellence with the construction of a 22,000-square-foot facility in Hampton.
The first of two planned buildings on the 20-acre campus will be used to assemble hull structures for Boeing’s Orca Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (XLUUV) program for the U.S. Navy.
“We are thrilled to reach this critical milestone with the development of our Center of Excellence campus,” said Andy Green, executive vice president of HII and president of HII’s Technical Solutions division.
Construction began in September 2020, following a ground-breaking event with special guests, including Gov. Ralph Northam and other state and local government officials.
Structural development of the main facility, a 135,000-square-foot building, is scheduled to be complete by the end of 2021. The purpose-built, state-of-the-art facility will be used for unmanned systems prototyping, production and testing.
HII partnered with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the City of Hampton and the Hampton Roads Alliance to secure the project. More than 250 high-quality jobs will be created to support unmanned systems design and production at the facility.
