Ingalls Shipbuilding is located in Pascagoula, Miss. on 800 acres of land along the Pascagoula River. Employing 11,500 employees, Ingalls is the largest manufacturing employer in Mississippi and a major contributor to the economic growth of Mississippi and Alabama. Ingalls is the largest supplier of U.S. Navy surface combatants, and has built nearly 70 percent of the U.S. Navy fleet of warships.more

Austal USA started operations in 1999 with under 100 employees on a 14-acre facility that consisted of a 90 x 60 assembly bay fronted by a 380-foot wharf. The original support staff of six included three vice presidents and their assistants and the team worked in a double-wide trailer.The first major expansion was completed in November 2005, shortly after Austal began designing the Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship for the U.S. Navy. This expansion included two additional assembly bays, two launch pads, and a combined wharf (bulkhead) length of 750 feet.more