Beci Brenton News

America’s largest military shipbuilding company Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) announced on Monday that Danny Hernandez will succeed Beci Brenton as the company’s corporate director of public affairs upon Brenton’s October 31 retirement. Hernandez will join HII on September 13, transition into the position, and report to the executive vice president of communications, while based in the company’s Washington, D.C. office.Brenton joined HII as corporate director of public affairs in 2011 after serving in various public affairs roles during her 26-year career with the U.S. Navy.

U.S. President Donald Trump says he wants to build dozens of new warships in one of the biggest peace-time expansions of the U.S. Navy. But interviews with ship-builders, unions and a review of public and internal documents show major obstacles to that plan. The initiative could cost nearly $700 billion in government funding, take 30 years to complete and require hiring tens of thousands of skilled shipyard workers - many of whom don't exist yet because they still need to be hired and trained, according to the interviews and the documents reviewed. Trump has vowed a huge build-up of the U.S. military to project American power in the face of an emboldened China and Russia. That includes expanding the Navy to 350 warships from 275 today.

The U.S. Navy will insist on competition for the next U.S. amphibious warship despite a decision last year to base the ship on the LPD-17 ship designed by Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc, Marine Corps Major General Robert Walsh said on Tuesday. Walsh, who is director of the U.S. Navy's Expeditionary Warfare Division, said the U.S. military owned the design for the LPD-17 class of ships and would launch a competition for the new warship program known as LX (R). "Competition drives down cost," Walsh said after a speech at the annual symposium of the Surface Navy Association.

Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. stands to loss as much as $194.3 million, more than 40 percent of its potential fee, under the Navy’s latest estimate of overruns for the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, according to Bloomberg. Construction of the Ford, the Navy’s most expensive warship, is likely to exceed by $884 million the shipbuilder’s target contract cost of about $5.2 billion for detailed design and construction, according to Navy officials and the service’s Selected Acquisition Report, obtained after it was delivered to Congress on March 29. The Ford is intended to be the first in a $40 billion, three-ship class of carriers. Its rising costs have brought questions from Republican Senator John McCain about the Navy program and the shipbuilder’s performance.

U.S. Navy and Lockheed Martin could reach a preliminary agreement as early as next week on how much the defense contractor will be paid for a pair of next-generation combat ships according to the AP. Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter has indicated he plans to strike a deal with Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin Corp. ahead of an April 12 deadline after a stop-work order was placed on one of its ships due to cost overruns, Capt. Beci Brenton, spokeswoman for Winter's office, said on Friday. Senior Navy officials in January placed a 90-day stop-work order on the second of two ships Lockheed is building as part of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program so they could conduct a cost review.