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Post by ferryfast admin on Oct 12, 2011 10:05:25 GMT -5
Navy names sixth Joint High-Speed Vessel after Choctaw County
By Dan Murtaugh Mobile Press-Register blog.al.com/press-register-business/2011/10/navy_names_sixth_joint_high-sp.html
Published: Wednesday, October 12, 2011, 9:42 AM
MOBILE, Alabama -- U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus last week announced that the sixth joint high-speed vessel bought by the Navy will be named Choctaw County, after the Misssissippi county in which he was born.
JHSVs, lightly armed transport ships, are being built for the Navy by Mobile's Austal USA. The company has contracts to build seven of the ships so far, with options for three more. If fully executed, the deal will be worth $1.6 billion to Austal.
The company, which operates a shipyard across the river from downtown Mobile, is the city's largest industrial employer with about 2,300 workers.
The first JHSV, Spearhead, is nearly finished and is set to be delivered to the Navy early next year.
The names of the next several JHSVs are somewhat up in the air, though, a Navy spokeswoman told the Press-Register last week. Right now they are called, in order, Vigilant, Fortitude, Falls Church and Resolute.
Originally the Navy and the U.S. Army were supposed to split the first 10 JHSVs, but the Navy agreed last year to take them all. The Army had named Spearhead, Vigilant, Fortitude and Resolute.
Navy spokeswoman Capt. Pamela Kunze said part of the agreement with the Army gives the Navy the option to rename all the ships other than Spearhead after small towns or counties. Falls Church, named after a town in Massachusetts, will likely stay the same, but the others are up in the air, she said.
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