Shipbuilding is Jackson County’s premiere industry cluster, as Ingalls Shipbuilding (a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries) and Halter Marine (a subsidiary of ST Engineering) have operations here.  With 11,500 employees, Ingalls is the largest manufacturing employer in Mississippi and a major contributor to the economic growth of Jackson County. Ingalls builds more classes of ships than any other shipyard in America. Ingalls is the builder-of-record for the Aegis DDG 51 class guided missile destroyers, LHA 6 class large deck amphibious ships, National Security Cutters for the U.S. Coast Guard and the sole builder of the Navy’s fleet of San Antonio (LPD 17) class amphibious assault ships. Halter Marine, Inc. is a subsidiary of ST Engineering. It specializes in ship design and construction and serves both public and private clients, including the United States Department of Defense. Halter Marine is a modern and progressive shipbuilder that uses cutting-edge technologies to design and build the world’s highest-quality maritime products. The U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Navy have awarded the contract for the Coast Guard’s next-generation heavy icebreaker to Halter Marine.

Other related companies include STEHMO, an affiliate of Halter Marine, which provides services to ships, drilling rigs, and other marine vessels, and Fairbanks Morse Naval Marine, which manufactures propellers and propulsion components for Naval surface combatants and submarines.