Colonna's Ship Yard, Incorporated

Colonna's Ship Yard, Incorporated, doing business as Steel America, is a for-profit shipbuilder and maritime repair contractor based in Norfolk, Virginia, that delivers drydocking, hull preservation, propulsion system maintenance, mechanical and electrical overhauls, and structural repairs to the U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, Military Sealift Command, and other federal maritime agencies as a prime contractor (76% of recent awards). The company competes predominantly in full-and-open procurements, though a material share of its prime award volume carries Total Small Business set-asides, particularly on Coast Guard and Army watercraft programs. Colonna's operates subsidiaries including Colonna's Shipyard Inc., Colonna's Shipyard West LLC, and Weld America LLC.

Naval Sea Systems Command dominates the customer base by both volume and dollars. The top five funding agencies account for 85% of recent awards: Naval Sea Systems Command (750 awards, $8.27 billion combined potential value), the Navy broadly (628 awards, $2 million), Military Sealift Command (163 awards, $661.1 million), the Coast Guard (120 awards, $170.2 million), and TACOM Life Cycle Management Command (47 awards, $1.2 billion). The two rankings diverge materially—TACOM anchors much of the Army dollars with watercraft sustainment programs, while Naval Sea Systems Command's dominance reflects task-order volume under large IDIQ vehicles rather than a dollar-per-award concentration.

Colonna's recent prime activity shows substantial growth through 2024 (43 awards in 2022 to 478 in 2024), followed by a sharp contraction in 2025 and 2026 (68 and 18 awards respectively), indicating either a recompete cliff or delay in task-order issuance. Fifteen awards carrying combined potential value of $21.2 million reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, presenting recompete exposure. The combined potential value across all awards is $12.05 billion; obligated dollars through the snapshot period total $1.56 billion (13% of ceiling), a typical profile for large IDIQ vehicles with multi-year funding horizons.

Core vehicle positions include a $262.39 million Messing and Berthing Barges Support IDIQ with NAVSEA (awarded July 2025, performance through July 2030), a $1.906 billion CNO Availabilities for Fast Attack Submarines contract (awarded September 2025, non-critical systems engineering scope, September 2033 completion), a $701.17 million Hull, Mechanical & Electrical Repair IDIQ (awarded May 2025, Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center work), a $241.4 million Army Watercraft Sustainment Maintenance Zone 1 IDIQ (awarded January 2026, TACOM LCMC, July 2031 completion), and smaller supporting IDIQs under Coast Guard (Marine Boatyard Repair and Maintenance Support Lot I and Lot II, $70.04 million and $61.9 million respectively, both total small business set-asides). Recent task-order examples include a $5.86 million USCGC THETIS drydock repair and modernization (June 2026, Coast Guard), a $9.41 million USCGC RELIANCE drydocking and maintenance contract extended through April 2026 (Coast Guard), a $17.6 million Messing and Berthing Barges Phase IV delivery order (May 2025, NAVSEA), a $12.36 million logistics support vessel maintenance order for Army watercraft (August 2025, TACOM), and a $3.2 million NOAA Ship Ferdinand Hassler five-year drydock repair order (August 2025, NOAA).

Colonna's holds a material subcontractor footprint under large defense primes. Recent sub work includes extensive elevator support unit and structural repair tasks for USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) and USS John C Stennis (CVN-74) refueling complex overhauls under HII Fleet Support Group; panel fabrication and assembly work under Huntington Ingalls on CVN 80/81 detailed design and construction; propulsion-related work for USS Eisenhower (CVN-69) under Metro Machine Corp.; and advanced planning fixture and radar tower work on CVN 75 under Huntington Ingalls. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, subs perform approximately 18% of contractor hours, supported by 15 named subcontractors. This mix—large prime IDIQs anchoring revenue and capacity, combined with targeted sub work on aircraft carrier modernization programs—positions Colonna's as both a tier-1 maritime contractor and a feeder to national shipbuilders.

SCI-reported invoicing totaled $117.4 million across FY2022–FY2024 (FY2022: $31.3 million, 93.1 FTEs; FY2023: $58.2 million, 109 FTEs; FY2024: $28 million, 52 FTEs), reflecting the partial and threshold-dependent nature of SCI data. Government-paid hourly rates on federal service contracts span a median of $117.50/hr, with the 10th percentile at $22.38/hr and the 90th percentile at $306.91/hr, indicating a mixed skilled-labor portfolio from entry-level technicians to senior engineering and management roles. The sharp FTE decline from FY2023 to FY2024 and the recompete cliff in the next twenty-four months signal recompete risk or contract transition activity that requires monitoring for sustained NAVSEA and TACOM revenue.