Detyens Shipyards Inc.

Detyens Shipyards Inc., a Charleston, South Carolina-based small business, delivers comprehensive ship repair, maintenance, drydocking, and modernization services to federal maritime agencies as a prime contractor on firm fixed-price definitive contracts and indefinite delivery vehicles. The company operates the largest commercial shipyard on the U.S. East Coast and competes predominantly full-and-open (no set-aside designation on its largest recent awards), though roughly 70% of its recent contract awards carry total small business set-aside designations.

Military Sealift Command dominates Detyens' customer concentration by both volume and dollars. MSC accounts for 156 awards carrying $1.72 billion in combined potential value across the portfolio — anchoring roughly 68% of the vendor's total known federal exposure. The Department of Homeland Security U.S. Coast Guard ranks second with 39 awards worth $179.1 million, followed by the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with 43 awards worth $77.1 million. The Department of the Army Materiel Command accounts for a smaller number of awards but carries substantial dollar value through the TACOM Life Cycle Management Command and Detroit Arsenal contracting offices. Together, these top five customers represent 93% of Detyens' combined potential value across the 1,370 awards in the source data spanning 1980 through July 2026.

Detyens holds positions on five major Navy indefinite delivery contracts that funnel the majority of task order volume: N0002485H8139 (229 task orders), N6267382C0001 (200 task orders), N6267370C0002 (149 task orders), N0003382C0033 (20 task orders), and N0002485H8639 (18 task orders). These vehicles support routine and major maintenance availabilities across Military Sealift Command's underway replenishment, cargo, and supply-class vessels. Recent concrete examples include a $56.7 million firm fixed-price contract awarded March 5, 2025, for lay berth and regular overhaul services on the USNS Lewis and Clark (T-AKE 1) with completion targeted for September 30, 2026; a $37.2 million contract awarded May 20, 2024, for regular overhaul and dry-docking of the USNS Joshua Humphreys (T-AO 188) with completion by February 24, 2025; and multiple contracts in the $10–25 million range for mid-term availability maintenance on vessels including the USNS Kanawha, USNS Arctic, and USNS Laramie. On the Coast Guard side, Detyens holds a five-year single-award IDIQ ceiling of $119.8 million awarded July 1, 2026, for drydock and heavy-maintenance repairs to the Coast Guard's 418-foot WMSL-class cutters running through June 30, 2031. NOAA work centers on five-year drydocking and repair contracts for oceanographic research vessels including the Nancy Foster ($6.35 million, November 5, 2025), Henry B. Bigelow ($7.37 million, September 4, 2025), Gordon Gunter ($8.43 million, December 9, 2024), Oregon II ($3.63 million, December 7, 2023), Thomas Jefferson ($3.99 million, November 6, 2023), and Pisces ($5.5 million, September 18, 2023).

Activity has remained steady over the past five years, with 13 awards in 2022, 9 in 2023, 10 in 2024, 15 in 2025, and 8 through early July 2026. Three awards carry ultimate completion dates within the next twenty-four months with combined potential value of $109.7 million — a modest recompete exposure relative to the vendor's base. The portfolio spans primarily NAICS 336611 (Ship Building and Repairing) with 316 awards, and Product Service Codes centered on maintenance and repair of ships and marine equipment (774 awards under PSC H228 for maintenance/repair/rebuild of ships and floating docks, and 453 under PSC J998 for non-nuclear ship repair).

Service Contract Inventory data covering FY2022–FY2024 show SCI-reportable invoiced revenue of $246.5 million across the three-year period: $71.7 million in FY2022, $101.3 million in FY2023, and $73.6 million in FY2024, with federal service workforce ranging from 172 to 230 FTEs. On federal services contracts captured in SCI, median government-paid rates ran around $205.28 per hour, with the 10th percentile at $159.45 per hour and the 90th percentile at $265.19 per hour. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, the average sub-hours share was 0%, indicating Detyens builds and delivers its own workforce without material reliance on subcontractor labor. The vendor carries three named sub-award positions (Vector Planning & Services on Coast Guard C5I systems work, Oceanetics Inc. on vessel repair task orders, and BAE Systems Land & Armaments on design-agent engineering support), but sub-award activity is negligible relative to the prime footprint. The Maritime Administration awarded Detyens a $566,617 Project Grant under the Assistance to Small Shipyards program (CFDA 20.814) in July 2022 to replace diesel-powered fire pumps with electric-powered ones at its Charleston facility, with completion by July 29, 2024.