# Hampton Roads manufacturing: shipbuilding and naval defense suppliers > Source: https://netray.co/manufacturing/hampton-roads-virginia-shipbuilding-manufacturing > Publisher: Netray (netray.co), AI and integration engineering for ERP and manufacturing systems. > Section: Manufacturing Hubs ## Short answer Hampton Roads is one of the largest naval shipbuilding and ship repair regions in the United States, centered on Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Chesapeake. Manufacturers here range from the major shipyards to small machine shops and fabricators that supply them, and nearly all face Navy-driven quality, traceability and cybersecurity requirements. ## Kind region ## Country United States ## Area Virginia ## Intro Hampton Roads is one of the largest naval shipbuilding and ship repair regions in the United States, centered on Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Chesapeake. Manufacturers here range from the major shipyards to small machine shops and fabricators that supply them, and nearly all face Navy-driven quality, traceability and cybersecurity requirements. ## Industries ### Naval shipbuilding **Detail:** Newport News Shipbuilding, part of Huntington Ingalls Industries, builds aircraft carriers and submarines, and a large supplier base provides castings, machined parts, pipe, cable and electronics. ### Ship repair and overhaul **Detail:** Private yards in Norfolk and the surrounding area, and the public Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, perform availabilities that generate steady demand for fast-turn machining and fabrication. ### Defense and aerospace suppliers **Detail:** Machine shops, fabricators and electronics assemblers supporting Navy programs, with additional aerospace and research work near NASA Langley in Hampton. ### Marine and port-related manufacturing **Detail:** Equipment, fabrication and repair services tied to the Port of Virginia and commercial marine operations. ## Ecosystem ### GENEDGE Alliance **Type:** MEP center **Note:** Virginia's NIST MEP affiliated center, which provides consulting and training to small and mid-sized manufacturers and supports cybersecurity compliance work. ### Newport News Shipbuilding (Huntington Ingalls Industries) **Type:** prime contractor **Note:** Builds U.S. Navy aircraft carriers and, with General Dynamics Electric Boat, Virginia-class submarines. ### Norfolk Naval Shipyard **Type:** anchor facility **Note:** A U.S. Navy public shipyard in Portsmouth that overhauls and repairs surface ships and submarines. ### The Apprentice School at Newport News Shipbuilding **Type:** workforce program **Note:** A long-running company apprenticeship program training trades and designers for shipbuilding careers. ### Old Dominion University **Type:** university **Note:** Norfolk-based research university with engineering and maritime programs relevant to the regional defense economy. ### Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) **Type:** research lab **Note:** A U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory in Newport News that sources precision components and cryogenic and vacuum equipment. ### Port of Virginia **Type:** port authority **Note:** Operates the deep-water terminals in Hampton Roads that move marine and industrial cargo. ### Hampton Roads Alliance **Type:** economic development **Note:** Regional economic development organization serving the Hampton Roads localities. ## Requirements - DFARS 252.204-7012 safeguarding of covered defense information and NIST SP 800-171 - CMMC 2.0 as it phases into Department of Defense contracts - ITAR registration and export control handling where applicable to the supplier - NAVSEA technical requirements and shipyard-issued quality clauses for Navy ship work - Material traceability and counterfeit part prevention for Navy supply chains - ISO 9001 or AS9100 as a customer-specified quality system ## Sections ### What shops here make and for whom **Body:** Most small manufacturers in the region are second and third tier suppliers. They machine components, weld and fabricate foundations and structures, assemble cable and electronic assemblies, or provide fast-turn repair parts during ship availabilities. Their customers are shipyards, prime contractors and the Navy's own repair organizations. Demand is lumpy. A repair availability or a submarine production milestone can send a surge of urgent requests, while gaps between awards leave capacity idle. ### Quoting and estimating realities **Body:** Quotes against Navy-related work carry more than machining time. Estimators need to price first article inspection, material certifications, source inspection by a government or prime representative, special packaging and documentation packages that must travel with the part. Underestimating the paperwork is a common way to lose margin on a job that looks simple on the drawing. Rework on specification changes is another risk. Keeping revision history tied to each quote and job in the ERP is worth the setup effort. **Bullets:** - Price documentation and inspection hours as separate lines - Link each quote to the drawing revision it was based on - Track which customers pay on milestone versus delivery ### ERP and systems seen in these shops **Body:** Small defense suppliers frequently run JobBOSS, E2, ProShop ERP or Global Shop Solutions, with some on Epicor Kinetic, Infor SyteLine or NetSuite. Larger suppliers lean on enterprise ERP with separate quality and document systems. The practical gap is traceability: tying a lot of material, a certification, a routing step and an inspection record to a shipped part. Where that data sits in different tools, searching it for an audit or a corrective action request takes hours that a retrieval layer over those records can shorten. ### Compliance, data handling and where private AI fits **Body:** Suppliers holding controlled unclassified information must protect it under NIST SP 800-171, and CMMC 2.0 adds assessment against those controls. That makes public AI chat tools a poor place for drawings, technical data packages or ERP exports. Running open-weight models on the supplier's own hardware, or in an environment the supplier controls and documents, keeps the data inside the boundary being assessed. Netray does not hold a CMMC certification or confer one. The architecture lets the customer keep data in their own enclave and show where it goes. AI helps with document search and ERP questions, but it should not make inspection or release decisions. ## Faq ### Where can a small Virginia manufacturer get help with cybersecurity compliance? **Answer:** GENEDGE Alliance, Virginia's NIST MEP affiliated center, supports small and mid-sized manufacturers, including work on NIST SP 800-171 readiness. Suppliers can also work with a registered practitioner or assessor for CMMC preparation. Check current Department of Defense guidance for the rollout timeline. ### What do Navy shipyard suppliers in Hampton Roads need to prove? **Answer:** Requirements vary by contract, but commonly include a quality system such as ISO 9001 or AS9100, material traceability, first article inspection and flow-down clauses from the shipyard. Many contracts also require DFARS 252.204-7012 and NIST SP 800-171 for controlled unclassified information. ### Can we use AI on technical data packages safely? **Answer:** Only if the deployment meets your contract's data handling rules. Running a model on your own servers keeps data inside your boundary, but you still need access controls, logging and a documented system security plan. Confirm with your contracting officer or compliance lead before you load controlled data. ### Does Netray work with shipyards in Hampton Roads? **Answer:** Netray builds private AI on top of ERP and manufacturing systems and works remotely or on site at the customer's location. This page is a regional guide and does not imply any existing relationship with a particular shipyard or supplier. ## Search terms hampton roads manufacturing, virginia mep center, newport news shipbuilding suppliers, norfolk ship repair machine shops, navy shipbuilding supplier requirements, CMMC for navy suppliers, ERP for defense machine shops --- Talk to an engineer: https://netray.co/contact?intent=erp_ai | Machine catalog: https://netray.co/agent/catalog.json