Ingalls Shipbuilding Names Blanchette VP of Quality and Engineering

America's largest military shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries announced Thursday that Brian Blanchette has been promoted to vice president of quality and engineering of its Ingalls Shipbuilding division.

Blanchette will be responsible for the management and oversight of the division’s quality program as well as all ship design, engineering, integrated logistics support and planning yard engineering efforts at the Pascagoula, Miss. shipyard. He will relieve Dave Belanger upon his retirement in July.

Blanchette served most recently as Ingalls’ director of technical and design engineering, where he led the execution of design efforts for Arleigh Burke-class (DDG 51) Flight III destroyers, amphibious assault ship Bougainville (LHA 8), as well as San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks Fort Lauderdale (LPD 28), Richard M. McCool Jr. (LPD 29) and Harrisburg (LPD 30). He has been a leader in his field across all classes of Ingalls-built ships during construction. Blanchette previously held positions in business development supporting multiple international programs, served as ship program manager for Ralph Johnson (DDG 114) and served as ship design manager for various platforms. Blanchette earned a Bachelor of Science in naval architecture and marine engineering from the University of Michigan.

“Throughout his 25-year career at Ingalls, Brian has served in a variety of diverse roles and has demonstrated a strong commitment to excellence,” Ingalls Shipbuilding President Kari Wilkinson said. “Brian’s focus on performance will remain an asset to our operations, and we are pleased to welcome him to the leadership team.”