HII jointly pursuing auxiliary vessel work with HD Hyundai Heavy Industries

Shipbuilder HII will jointly pursue work on the Navy's Next-generation Logistics Ship program together with South Korea's HD Hyundai Heavy Industries as the two companies look to expand their international collaboration.

The shipbuilders will submit a joint response to the Navy’s recent NGLS request for information, which signals the service’s intent to award up to three contracts for concept refinement and ship design work. Also known as the Light Replenishment Oiler, the NGLS is intended to serve as a small logistics craft for resupply missions.

HII and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries signed a new agreement this week intended to expand strategic teaming efforts for U.S. Navy auxiliary shipbuilding programs, according to an announcement from the companies.

“This marks the beginning of deeper collaboration between not only our companies, but each of our countries, that will support enduring changes to military and commercial shipbuilding in America,” HII Executive Vice President for Maritime Systems and Corporate Strategy Eric Chewning said in a statement. “We look forward to working collaboratively with HHI, the U.S. and South Korean governments, and with our customers to transform the U.S. shipbuilding industrial base and enable accelerated throughput in our shipyards.”

Collaboration under the agreement will also target joint investments in distributed shipbuilding and flexible ship construction, improvements to U.S. Navy Indo-Pacific in-theater ship lifecycle support and collaboration on robotics, automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies.

Signed in South Korea at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation 2025 forum, the agreement follows an April memorandum of understanding between the companies aimed at exploring collaborative opportunities to accelerate ship production.