Hanwha, TOTE lock in deal for Golden Dome tracking ship

TOTE Services has signed a contract with the U.S. Maritime Administration to manage construction of a new missile-tracking ship for the Missile Defense Agency, and has subcontracted Hanwha Philly Shipyard in Philadelphia to build it. The first ship is scheduled for delivery in 2030.

The vessel is the first of the Missile Range Instrumentation Vessel class, a planned series of ships that will track missile flights and intercept tests at sea. The first MRIV, which White House budget director Russ Vought named Golden Defender when the program was announced in July, will support the Golden Dome for America missile defense initiative. The shipyard subcontract covers one firm ship with options for two more. Neither company disclosed the value of the new agreements.

The MRIVs will replace Pacific Tracker and Pacific Collector, two Maritime Administration ships built in 1965 and 1970 that now carry out missile range instrumentation work for the Missile Defense Agency. The companies have said the new ships will observe missile intercept tests over the Pacific Ocean, collect test data and support range safety. TOTE Services already manages and operates both of the older ships.

The design draws heavily on the National Security Multi-Mission Vessel, a training ship class that Hanwha Philly Shipyard has been building for the Maritime Administration’s state maritime academies, also under TOTE’s management. According to TOTE, the MRIV uses the same hull and shares about 70 percent of its overall design with that class. The yard will build the new ship using the production line, supply chain and workforce already in place for the training ships.

“Signing the Missile Range Instrumentation Vessel contract and executing the shipyard subcontract brings us closer to delivering the next generation of U.S. defense capability,” said Jeff Dixon, president of TOTE Services. “Our proven Vessel Construction Management model means we’re hitting the milestones sooner and making meaningful progress faster.”

Under the vessel construction manager model, a commercial firm coordinates the shipyard, suppliers and government customers instead of the government running the program itself. TOTE said the approach let it finalize the design, contract terms and firm fixed pricing in under three months, a process it said can take a year or more in traditional government shipbuilding. The company says the model cuts acquisition costs by at least 50 percent by setting requirements early and approving changes quickly.

TOTE is also the construction manager for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps Landing Ship Medium program, a fleet of small amphibious ships, under a contract the U.S. Navy announced in July worth up to $2.2 billion.

The MRIV program is a joint effort of the Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of War and the Missile Defense Agency, run under TOTE’s existing construction management contract with the Maritime Administration.

“The Missile Defense Agency depends on a strong domestic industrial base to keep our nation safe,” said Sen. Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania. “Announced at my 2026 Pennsylvania Defense & Innovation Summit, the partnership between Hanwha Philly Shipyard and TOTE Services will strengthen our military readiness, expand American shipbuilding capacity, and reinforce Pennsylvania’s critical role in our national security. Pennsylvania has long served as an arsenal of democracy, and this project is another example of our Commonwealth delivering for America.”

Hanwha Philly Shipyard, owned by South Korea’s Hanwha Group since 2024, now employs more than 2,000 production workers, according to TOTE, after the training ship program revived a yard that had shrunk to a few dozen workers. When the program was announced in July, Defense News reported that the effort to build two MRIVs was worth about $2 billion.