The U.S. Department of Defense announced that Fincantieri Marinette Marine (FMM) was awarded a $526 million contract to build a fourth Constellation-class Frigate. FMM received the contract for the first-in-class Constellation-class frigate in April 2020, and since the Navy has exercised three options for follow-on vessels. Construction on the first frigate began in late August last year in Marinette, Wis., and FMM is scheduled to deliver that ship, the future USS Constellation, in 2026.
“We at Fincantieri Marine Group are proud to lead the Constellation program, and along with our partners and suppliers, we remain committed to building tomorrow’s Navy,” said Marco Galbiati, CEO of FMG.
The ongoing difficulties with the LCSs were a major factor in the US Navy’s decision to kickstart the Constellation program. The Constellation class is a class of multi-mission guided-missile frigates under development for the United States Navy as a follow-on to the modular but problematic littoral combat ship. The U.S. Navy selected five shipbuilders to evolve their designs into a prospective design for the proposed twenty FFG(X) guided-missile frigates. On 30 April 2020, it was announced that Fincantieri Marinette Marine had won the contract with its FREMM multipurpose frigate-based design.
Fincantieri, one of the world’s largest and most diversified maritime companies, employs more than 21,000 shipbuilding professionals in 18 shipyards on four continents. Fincantieri operates in the United States through its subsidiary Fincantieri Marine Group. This company, which serves commercial and government customers, including the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, has three shipyards (Fincantieri Marinette Marine, Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding and Fincantieri ACE Marine) located in Wisconsin on the Great Lakes.
