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The American company Bollinger Shipyards announced the acquisition of the VT Halter Marine and ST Engineering Halter Marine Offshore shipyards from ST Engineering. According to experts, the deal was caused by too slow conclusion of contracts by the US Navy with smaller shipyards.
The Defense News publication writes that the deal will probably be completed by the end of 2022. Thanks to the deal, Bollinger Shipyards will receive new additional opportunities in the field of construction and repair of US Navy ships. Now the company has 14 shipyards in the state of Louisiana. After the deal, she will receive 2 shipyards in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and two more inactive shipyards north of Pascagoula.
Earlier, Bollinger signed a contract for the construction of a Sentinel-class rapid response boat for the US Coast Guard. The company is also building several Navajo-class rescue ships.
In the spring of 2022, Bollinger, HII and Raytheon Technologies were praised by the US Navy for their active work on the construction of ships. Now the US Senate is considering the possibility of allocating additional funds for the construction of a third ship for the Coast Guard.
The concept of the development of the US Navy assumes the appearance of a large number of small ships, which will allow for distributed naval operations. The implementation of this concept will require the involvement of a large number of small shipyards in the shipbuilding process, which previously could not build large warships, but are well suited for the construction of boats and small ships.
However, working with small shipyards requires greater centralization, since it is difficult for the Navy to conclude contracts with a large number of small shipyards. The shipbuilding industry cannot afford to wait for the US Navy to decide on the rhythm of ship construction they need.
The tense military-political situation in the world also dictates its conditions: the constant postponement of the deadlines for concluding contracts and launching ships negatively affects the combat capability of the American naval forces. Mergers and acquisitions of small shipyards are becoming one of the ways to increase the efficiency of the shipbuilding industry and faster execution of contracts.
