NEWPORT NEWS, Va., Jan. 26, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) today hosted a visit by U.S. Rep. Jon Runyan (R-N.J.) at the company's Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) division. The congressman met with shipbuilders and toured the shipyard with Ken Mahler, the division's vice president of Navy Programs.
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Runyan received a demonstration of the Ford-class virtual design tool, visited the main machine shop and Virginia-class submarine outfitting facilities, and toured the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78). Following a pierside briefing on the refueling and overhaul progress being made on the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), Runyan participated in a working lunch with NNS President Matt Mulherin and senior staff.
"We welcome the opportunity to showcase the skill and dedication of our people, who are building the most complex warships in the world," said NNS President Matt Mulherin. "Our products are built using materials from suppliers in states across the country, including New Jersey, where many EMALS (Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System) components come from. This visit gives Congressman Runyan a chance to see first-hand the important contributions that some of his constituents make toward our product and our national security."
Runyan serves on three Congressional committees: House Armed Services (HASC), Veterans Affairs and Natural Resources. He also serves on the Readiness and Tactical Air and Land Forces subcommittees of the HASC.
"I want to thank HII for hosting me in Newport News today," Rep. Runyan said. "I was very impressed by their facilities and all that they do to help our men and women in uniform. I was especially intrigued by their use of EMALS, the system that catapults jets off of Navy vessels, on the ships they are building. This system was created, developed and tested at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst back in my home district in New Jersey. These types of working relationships between the Department of Defense and private industry are what we must encourage if we want to maintain and strengthen our nation's last major domestic manufacturer, the defense industry."
Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) designs, builds and maintains nuclear and non-nuclear ships for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard and provides after-market services for military ships around the globe. For more than a century, HII has built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder. Employing nearly 38,000 in Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana and California, its primary business divisions are Newport News Shipbuilding and Ingalls Shipbuilding. For more information, visit:
- HII on the web: www.huntingtoningalls.com
- HII on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HuntingtonIngallsIndustries
- HII on Twitter: twitter.com/hiindustries
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