Newport News Shipbuilding’s Foundry recently poured the largest casting for the new Columbia-Class Submarine Program.

General Foreman Kevin Forrest said the pour – which weighed in at more than 21,000 pounds – may look fairly easy, but there is a lot of work that happens before shipbuilders get to that point.

“The patternmaking, molding and pouring operations are only about 10 to 15% of the process. It’s a very complex operation that has many different parts to make one casting,” he said. “Pattern, mold, melting all have to come together as one team to make this happen. It’s not three or four separate organizations. It’s one Foundry with different parts that work together to make it look easy to get the casting out of the back door.”