Austal submits bid to build up to 10 high-speed military vessels
Thursday, July 31, 2008
By KAIJA WILKINSON
Business Reporter

Mobile shipbuilder Austal USA said Wednesday that it had submitted its final bid for a contract that could lead to construction of up to 10 high-speed troop transport ships.

The U.S. Navy is leading the purchasing process for the Joint High Speed Vessel program, though the ships will also be used by the U.S. Army. The vessels are designed to quickly ferry military personnel and equipment within theaters, much as the Army already uses a fast ferry it leases from Austal USA's parent company, Austal Ltd. of Australia.

Bob Browning, Austal's chief executive, said his company is "perfectly positioned" to build the vessels.

"We have the trained workforce ready today, we have the facilities available today to support construction, and we have already built a vessel of very similar design right here in Mobile," he said, referring the Hawaii Superferry.

Austal was one of three bidders awarded a design contract in January, and company officials said that they anticipate a contract award before year's end.

The Navy could not say Wednesday afternoon what other proposals had been submitted, but teams led by Maine-based Bath Iron Works, a division of General Dynamics, and Louisiana's Bollinger Shipyards Inc. were also awarded design contracts.

The Mobile shipbuilder also said Wednesday that it had won new work to provide "additional features and equipment on the second Hawaii Superferry to facilitate its use by the military."

Part of a $190-million, two-ship contract, the vessel is being built for Hawaii Superferry Inc. The first superferry is in service in Hawaii, but the company's plan to run an inter-island ferry service has been plagued by environmental protests, and company officials could be positioning the vessel for sale to a third party.

Browning said he met recently with Thomas Fargo, a retired U.S. Navy admiral who is Hawaii Superferry's chief executive, and there was "no mention" of plans to sell the second vessel.

"However, the national defense features we are adding to HSF 2 would enable the vessel to be chartered to the military if they so desired," Browning said.

Austal has spent the better part of four years ramping up facilities and employment, largely on the promise of building new military ships. The centerpiece of that plan is a new breed of warship — the littoral combat ship, or LCS — which is designed to conduct a variety of missions in coastal waters.

In 2004, Austal received $10 million from state and local governments to expand its Mobile River shipyard with the multibillion- dollar LCS program in mind. The Navy has said it wanted up to 55 of those ships, but cost overruns on the first two prototypes — one built by a Lockheed Martin Corp. team in a Wisconsin shipyard and the second built by Austal for a General Dynamics Corp.-led contracting team — have slowed the shipbuilding program.

Still, many see the ship as essential to the Navy's stated goal of reaching a 313-ship fleet within the next decade. The LCS is key, Robert Work, a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, offered, because the only way the Navy can approach its fleet size targets is to have a "small, affordable combatant."

Austal USA plans a ceremonial groundbreaking today for a new facility that company officials hope will drive down the cost of either the LCS seaframe or any future Joint High Speed Vessel work.

The 700,000-square- foot modular shipbuilding facility will cover about 16 acres near its current shipyard. The idea behind it is to take an almost assembly-line approach in building ship components, allowing the company to gain manufacturing efficiencies on ships of similar size and design.

Browning has said the facility will be an "enabler" allowing the company to better its manufacturing processes on both military and commercial ships.

Austal now employs more than 1,000 workers in Mobile. It has said the modular facility, when complete, could create another 1,300 jobs.

© 2008 Press-Register
© 2008 al.com All Rights Reserved.