The Navy awarded Austal USA a $79 million contract modification to exercise an option for construction of one more
Navajo-class towing, rescue and salvage ship, the future T-ATS 15.
This award puts the company under contract for five Navajo-class ships. T-ATS 11 and T-ATS 12 are currently under construction at Austal’s new Mobile, Ala., steel assembly line.
“Construction of the T-ATS program is well underway at Austal USA. We are very pleased with the performance of our steel panel line. This contract award, bringing our total T-ATS program to five ships, illustrates the Navy’s continued confidence in our team’s demonstrated ability to deliver valuable capability on-budget and on-schedule,’ Austal USA President Rusty Murdaugh said in a statement.
These ships are expected to provide tug, salvage and rescue capability for Navy fleet operations. Austal USA noted they are capable of towing heavy Navy ships as well as supporting oil spill response, humanitarian assistance and wide area search and surveillance.
The company argued it is using its manufacturing processes combined with “innovative methods that incorporate lean manufacturing principles, modular construction, and moving assembly lines to build these ships.”
Austal said it expects to start construction of T-ATS 15 in early 2024 and plans to deliver the ship by the end of 2027. The contract announcement said the work is expected to be finished by August 2026.
Beyond the T-ATSs, Austal’s steel shipbuilding has started working on the steel Auxiliary Floating Dry Dock Medium earlier in June and also has contracts to build the Coast Guard’s Heritage-class Offshore Patrol Cutters and the Navy’s TAGOS-25 class ocean surveillance ships.