Bollinger, Fincantieri Marinette Marine to Build Landing Ship Medium, Navy Says

Shipyards in Mississippi and Wisconsin will build the first new naval vessels under the Trump administration’s push to revamp military shipbuilding, according to the service.

Fincantieri Marinette Marine, the shipyard that was building the cancelled Constellation-class frigate, will join Bollinger Shipyards in constructing the Marine Corps’ Landing Ship Medium, the Navy announced Wednesday.

Naval Sea Systems Command is asking industry for proposals for a vessel construction manager that will run the shipbuilding program that’s key to the Marine Corps’ island-hopping strategy in the Pacific.

“For initial production, the Navy will direct the VCM to manage LSM construction at two shipyards: Bollinger Shipyards and Fincantieri Marinette Marine,” reads a Navy news release.

“Bollinger Shipyards was awarded a contract to support LSM long lead time procurement and lead ship engineering design activities in September 2025; Fincantieri will execute LSM work to build four ships,” the release continues. “The VCM will then have the ability to decide the best strategy for awarding the remaining three ships authorized under the base contract.”

The request for proposals, issued Tuesday, comes after the Navy retooled the program late last year to pursue a Dutch design that’s already in service. The McClung-class Landing Ship Mediums will be based off of Dutch shipbuilder Damen’s LST-100.

Announcing the program’s redirection in December, Navy Secretary John Phelan said the service would use a vessel construction manager for LSM.

Several weeks before that announcement, Phelan cancelled the Constellation-class frigate program that had been underway at Fincantieri Marinette Marine since 2020. The terms of the cancellation would allow the Italian-owned shipyard to continue building the first two ships in the class, but axed the next four.

Now, with the altered Landing Ship Medium program, Marinette has work to fill the void of those four cancelled frigates.

“By providing a mature, ‘build-to-print’ design and empowering a VCM to manage production, we are streamlining oversight for this acquisition,” Rear Adm. Brian Metcalf, the program executive officer for ships, said in the release. “This approach accelerates the timeline and strengthens our industrial base, ensuring we have the capacity and expertise needed for sustained maritime advantage.”

The Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act signed in December permits the Navy to use the Vessel Construction Manager for the first eight LSMs, in addition to the future light replenishment oilers and other auxiliary ships.

The Marine Corps envisions the LSM has a platform that can ferry its Marine Littoral Regiments, armed with anti-ship missiles, between islands and shorelines in the Pacific.

The U.S. Maritime Administration used a VCM to build five National Security Multi-Mission Vessels for the U.S. maritime academies at what is now Hanwha Philly Shipyard.