WEST POINT – A military defense contractor with a West Point facility best known for building military trucks is now building parts for Navy warships.
ND Defense CEO Imtiaz Uddin said a contract with HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division to manufacture a helicopter bridge crane for the future USS Sam Nunn is among the company’s first contracts in the maritime sector.
While it marks ND Defense’s shift into the maritime industry, the contract also brings at least 40 jobs aiming to retain skilled trade workers in the Golden Triangle.
“It’s bringing good-paying jobs to West Point, to this state – skilled machinists jobs, welders, engineers,” Uddin said Friday during a ceremony at the West Point facility. “It’s these kinds of careers that build families, strengthen communities and give young people a reason to stay here at home.”
The helicopter bridge crane will be part of the USS Sam Nunn’s aviation handling system, allowing for helicopters and other heavy equipment to be lifted, secured and serviced regardless of at-sea conditions.
With the contract, Uddin said the company is looking to hire additional workers, particularly skilled welders and technicians, though he did not disclose a specific salary range.
“There are special requirements for the Navy, so … we are growing internally and hiring them externally,” Uddin told The Dispatch. “We’re paying for relocation. We’re putting them up so that way we can enable them to stay and enjoy the state of Mississippi and be a part of the local community.”
U.S. Congressman Trent Kelly, who represents Mississippi’s 1st Congressional District and sits on the House Armed Services Committee, said the contract reflects a broader push to rebuild the country’s industrial base beyond its coasts.
“We did not win World War II because we built great ships on the coast, or we built great airplanes on the coast,” Kelly told the crowd of roughly 50 at ND Defense on Friday. “We built those ships, we built those tanks, we built those aircraft all across America.”
Kelly said the country’s ability to compete with rivals like China depends on spreading manufacturing work, particularly in the defense sector, into regions like the Golden Triangle.
“Rural America has to be engaged in the workforce, or we cannot produce to the level that is required to continue to stay ahead of our adversaries,” Kelly said. “… So when we’re building pieces and components of ships here in West Point, Mississippi, that means there’s more room to build the actual ships or hulls or the things that are in open water at Huntington Ingalls in Pascagoula or in Norfolk or in Connecticut or in San Diego.”
Uddin said the contract is not likely to be the company’s last in the sector as ND Defense looks to claim space in the maritime industrial base. He said the company is also expanding into advanced electronics, complex war harnesses and uncrewed drone technology, among others.
Every component leaving the facility floor in West Point serves the singular purpose of “supporting and protecting warfighters out in the theater,” he said.
“But the company does not stand in this alone. The machinists, the welders and the engineers who built this came from West Point, from Columbus, from Starkville and communities across the region,” Uddin said. “When Huntington Ingalls came and chose ND Defense, they chose Mississippi. They chose the Golden Triangle. Every assembly that ships out of Mississippi directly strengthens America’s fleet and America’s maritime security, and this is just the beginning.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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