"Perfection sometimes is the enemy of more than good enough," George Moutafis, CEO of Fincantieri Marine Group, told The War Zone in a wide-ranging interview about the Constellation class frigate program.
The Constellation program's trajectory: FREMM parent design to cancellation
The U.S. Navy selected the Franco‑Italian FREMM as the Constellation class frigate's parent design with the expectation that adapting an existing platform would be faster, cheaper and less risky than a clean‑sheet build. That expectation did not materialize. According to the reporting, constant change orders pushed the design away from its origins; two years into construction the first ship was barely 10% complete while its design was still being finalized; and costs and schedules exceeded original projections. Late last year the Navy canceled the program, leaving Fincantieri’s Wisconsin yard sidelined and a replacement frigate contract awarded to Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula. The source also notes the Trump administration is building a different frigate from a different yard.
George Moutafis on causes and lessons
Appointed CEO on July 1, 2025 as the project was unraveling, Moutafis framed Constellation’s failure as an execution problem as much as a design choice. He said some of the program’s aims “may have been ahead of its time,” and that failing to evolve execution produced undesired effects. Moutafis emphasized trade‑offs between perfection and timely delivery, saying schedule must be prioritized when the need is urgent for the warfighter. He pointed to recent Navy moves — empowering Portfolio Acquisition Executives (PAEs) to make decisions, minimize change, and embrace innovation — as measures that reflect lessons learned from Constellation.
Could Constellation have been salvaged? Fincantieri’s view
Moutafis argued the original approach was sensible: had the program stayed closer to the principles that led to the FREMM selection and maintained the original setup, the ship would likely have tracked closer to its original design and schedule. He said Fincantieri consciously shifted to “become a true partner” once the Navy altered course, accepting changes and offering the Wisconsin facility as a national asset. He noted the yard is positioned to support serial production of landing ships and icebreakers today, and to serve future small surface combatant needs should they arise, because “the infrastructure [in Wisconsin] has been built to ideally serve that type of vessel.”
The Navy’s Vessel Construction Manager (VCM) model and build‑to‑print
In direct response to the Constellation experience, the Navy created the Vessel Construction Manager (VCM) concept. The VCM holds the prime contract, oversees shipyard performance, controls subcontracts, and serves as a buffer between the service and the shipbuilder to keep costs and schedules on track. Moutafis described the VCM model as an effort to get decisions made “ahead of time,” supply a mature, production‑ready design, and place that design in the hands of a VCM to enable fast, daily production decisions between the VCM and the shipbuilder with minimal Navy intervention.
For Fincantieri, which favors an end‑to‑end model — developing design, building, and supporting vessels through the lifecycle — that represents an operational shift. Moutafis said Fincantieri is willing to adapt to a build‑to‑print role: “be the shipbuilder that respects this design, doesn’t try to mess with it, just works out all the kinks to ensure producibility, and then moves swiftly into quick serial production.” He characterized the approach as an “innovative” way to prioritize schedule while maintaining quality, contingent on all parties abandoning entrenched habits.
What this means for the Navy, Fincantieri, and Ingalls Shipbuilding
- The Navy: Will be pushing decision authority to PAEs and testing the VCM structure to keep designs stable and schedules tight; the service has already canceled Constellation and shifted to a different frigate and yard.
- Fincantieri: Having pledged to adjust, the company plans to respect build‑to‑print constraints on programs like the Landing Ship Medium (LSM) and leverage the Wisconsin yard for near‑term work such as landing ships and icebreakers while remaining available for future small surface combatant needs.
- Ingalls Shipbuilding: Has received the contract to replace the Constellation class frigate and will build the now‑selected frigate in Pascagoula, per the reporting.
Moutafis ended the interview cautiously optimistic: the Navy’s recent organization and the VCM model reflect the lessons he believes Constellation taught — chiefly, that schedule must be prioritized and changes tightly managed. The concrete test is already under way with LSM work and the VCM experiment; whether PAEs and VCMs can sustain the discipline Moutafis calls for will determine if the Navy moves from a cycle of redesign and delay to fast, predictable serial production.
