HII, KBR to Manage Aussie's Naval Shipbuilding College
Huntington Ingalls Industries announced that Australia’s Department of Defence has awarded a contract to Naval Shipbuilding Institute (NSI), a joint venture between HII’s Technical Solutions division and Kellogg Brown and Root’s (KBR) Government Services division, to establish and manage Australia’s new Naval Shipbuilding College. This effort is in support of Australia’s mission to recapitalize its shipbuilding and maritime sustainment industry over the next several decades.
In announcing the request for proposals in 2017, Minster of Defence Industry Christopher Pyne emphasized that the Naval Shipbuilding College is a unique organization with one national purpose to “ensure the required workforce is equipped with the right skills at the right time to implement the government’s ambitious naval shipbuilding program.” Establishing the college is part of $90 billion (AUD) planned investment in Australia’s sovereign shipbuilding enterprise over the next 30 plus years.
“We are pleased that the Australian government has entrusted our HII-KBR team with this important mission,” Technical Solutions President Andy Green said. “The HII-KBR team offers a strong combination of workforce development and training expertise that will be the foundation for the future success of the Naval Shipbuilding Institute. At HII we have been developing shipbuilders for over 100 years, and we will build upon this to help grow a strong, well-qualified workforce for Australia’s naval shipbuilding and sustainment industry.”
HII and KBR have put together a team from the shipbuilding, education, training, academic and business sectors across Australia to ensure the mission of the Naval Shipbuilding College is properly executed. These organizations include the Australian Maritime College in Launceston; Australian vocational education and training providers (TAFE) in Adelaide and Fremantle; and AiGroup, Manpower Group, PwC, Defence Teaming Centre and the Defence Industry Educational Skills Consortium, all of which have extensive national presence across Australia. The team will leverage and build upon existing Australian capability to successfully deliver world-class workforce services for the college.
HII Technical Solutions is a professional services business providing solutions to a variety of government and commercial customers worldwide. The division was formed in December 2016 when HII acquired Camber Corp. and combined it with HII’s existing services subsidiaries, including AMSEC, Continental Maritime of San Diego, Newport News Industrial, SN3, Undersea Solutions Group and UniversalPegasus International. Technical Solutions provides fleet maintenance and modernization, unmanned solutions and rapid prototyping, agile software development and network engineering, training systems, logistics support, nuclear engineering and fabrication, and oil and gas engineering. Technical Solutions employs more than 5,000 people working in 35 states and 11 countries, with mobile “fly-away” teams that support emergent situations around the globe.