Post by ferryfast admin on Feb 2, 2008 15:01:22 GMT -5
Navy wants Austal design
Posted by KAIJA WILKINSON
www.al.com/
February 01, 2008 6:46 AM
Austal USA has won a $3 million preliminary design contract for the Joint High Speed Vessel, U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby's office announced Thursday. The ship is a military transport similar to the high-speed ferries that Austal builds for commercial clients.
The Austal contract was one of three awarded by the Navy, according to Shelby's office.
The news is a boost for the Mobile shipbuilder, which has been ramping up facilities and employees in anticipation of producing a new shallow-water warship for the Navy. That program, the littoral combat ship, has been sidetracked by cost overruns.
Austal is more than three-quarters finished with a prototype LCS that it is building as part of a contracting team led by General Dynamics Corp. That team is competing with a team led by Lockheed Martin Corp. to manufacture up to 55 of the ships.
Both the General Dynamics and Lockheed teams saw a second prototype LCS canceled in the wake of considerable cost increases on a ship originally expected to cost $220 million.
Despite the LCS cancellation, employment at Austal USA's shipyard is holding steady at about 1,100. Company officials have said that a $254 million expansion -- a modular, assembly-line style facility -- could nearly double the number of workers.
But the strong employment hinges on winning more work, and Austal has labeled the Joint High Speed Vessel, or JHSV, as one potential source.
Bill Pfister, Austal USA's vice president of government programs, said Austal has six months to submit its design to the Navy. The Navy will select the winner later this year, Shelby's office said Thursday.
Austal is competing with contracting teams led by Maine-based Bath Iron Works, a division of General Dynamics, and Louisiana's Bollinger Shipyards Inc., the Navy said.
Pfister has said that the JHSV program evolved out of the Army's Theater Support Vessel program, which called for high-speed vessels to transport troops, trucks, tanks, armored combat vehicles and weapons over distances of less than 1,100 miles. Not designed as a combat ship, the vessels would serve both the Army and the Navy, according to a Navy Web site.
Pfister said the winning contractor could build up to eight of the vessels.
Construction is expected to start this fiscal year, Pfister said. Should Austal be chosen, the work would dovetail nicely with the new modular facility scheduled to be complete in the summer of 2009.
Pfister said the Navy wants to speed production as the program progresses, ordering two vessels each in 2009 and 2010.
The Navy pegs the cost of the lead vessel at about $150 million, with subsequent ships costing about $130 million, Pfister said.
Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, called the award a vote of confidence for Austal.
"I am pleased that the Navy recognized Austal's capabilities when they awarded this contract," he said in an e-mail. "As the Navy moves towards selecting a single winner for the construction of the Joint High Speed Vessel, I am confident that they will be impressed by Austal's design and Alabama's skilled and efficient workforce."
www.austal.com/