TOTE Services, which pioneered the third-party construction-manager model for U.S. government shipbuilding, has won the U.S. Navy’s first-ever Vessel Construction Manager (VCM) award. Under the $2.2 billion contract, TOTE will oversee construction of the future Medium Landing Ship (LSM) at two Navy-selected yards — Bollinger for the lead ship and Fincantieri Marinette Marine for four follow-on vessels — with flexibility to award up to three more.

TOTE says it will standardize the vessel design across yards, buy ships in blocks to secure better pricing, and work to accelerate delivery, tighten cost and schedule discipline, and expand the U.S. shipbuilding industrial base. The VCM requirement was written into the FY2026 defense appropriations for up to eight of the 15 planned LSMs. The design is based on a 4,000-tonne Damen landing ship already in service with other navies, chosen for its comparatively simple, low-cost profile to meet the Marine Corps’ need for inter-island mobility in the Western Pacific.

Unlike TOTE’s first VCM role for the Maritime Administration, where it selected the shipbuilder, the company is stepping in after the Navy pre-designated the designer and yards. A competing bidder, Crowley Government Services, filed an unsuccessful protest arguing the arrangement shifted too much commercial risk onto the manager.

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