Newport News Shipbuilding to Host Ground-Breaking Ceremony for Aircraft Carrier and Submarine Production Facility


ADVISORY, June 19, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

What: Media are invited to attend the ground-breaking ceremony for the Joint Manufacturing and Assembly Facility (JMAF). The JMAF will support Newport News Shipbuilding's Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier construction and current and future submarine construction.
   
Who: Speakers will include Newport News Vice Mayor Robert S. Coleman, Newport News Shipbuilding President Matt Mulherin and Newport News Shipbuilding Vice President of Trades Operations Ray Bagley.
   
When: 1 p.m. Monday, June 22
  Media check-in: 12:45 p.m.
   
Where: Media will park in a designated area north of Newport News Shipbuilding's North Yard parking lot (see directions below).
   
RSVP:  Christie Miller, Huntington Ingalls Industries
  (757) 380-3581 
  Christine.Miller@hii-co.com

Flat, comfortable shoes are recommended.

The JMAF is designed to include multiple worksites, advanced technology, automated equipment, heavyweight cranes, large transportation doors and specialty paint bays to enable more efficient construction processes.

Opening in 2017, the initial phases of the facility will include production bays to improve construction efficiencies under current contracts for the Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier and Virginia-class submarine programs.

Directions to Media Parking

From I-64 (either westbound or eastbound):

  • Take Exit #264 to Interstate I-664 toward Downtown Newport News/Suffolk
  • Take Exit #5 (35th Street) to Warwick Blvd.
  • Travel approximately 3 miles on Warwick Blvd.
  • Immediately after 69th Street, make a U-turn on to Huntington Avenue
  • Merge into the right lane and continue to bear right on to Shipyard Drive
  • Continue downhill and follow signs to media parking

Huntington Ingalls Industries is America's largest military shipbuilding company and a provider of engineering, manufacturing and management services to the nuclear energy, oil and gas markets. For more than a century, HII's Newport News and Ingalls shipbuilding divisions in Virginia and Mississippi have built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder. Headquartered in Newport News, Virginia, HII employs approximately 38,000 people operating both domestically and internationally. For more information, visit: