Mobile-based Austal USA has been awarded a $3.6 million U.S. Navy contract for functional design of the Navajo-class Towing, Salvage and Rescue Ship (T-ATS) — a steel-hulled vessel.
Austal broke ground for its first steel shipbuilding facility in March and expects it to be operational by April 2022.
For the past 20 years, Austal has built aluminum-hulled vessels including littoral combat ships and expeditionary fast transport craft for the Navy.
Under the new contract, Austal is responsible for developing detailed requirements for construction, testing and delivering T-ATS ships, which are 263-foot craft designed to help with towing, salvage, rescue, oil spill response, humanitarian assistance and wide-area search and surveillance.
Work will be performed in Mobile.
