Independence class Littoral Combat Ships (photo : Oen Hammonds)
AUSTAL (ASX: ASB) is pleased to announce that the United States Department of Defence has awarded Austal USA a contract to build two additional Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) for the US Navy fleet. This brings the total of new LCS orders booked in calendar year 2018 to four ships.
For competition reasons the US Navy has not announced the actual contract value but has stated that award is under the congressional cost cap of US$584 million per ship.
“This latest order from the US Navy is a tremendous endorsement of Austal’s unique aluminium trimaran and further evidence of the important role Austal plays in building the United States Navy” Austal CEO, David Singleton said.
“We have been very successful, winning two Littoral Combat Ships per annum in competitions in each of the last three US Government financial years. This has been achieved as a result of a highly focused and successful program of production efficiency at our shipyard in Alabama and is a credit to that team”
“The award of LCS 36 and 38 will mean that Austal has a forward order book of a further ten ships to deliver in a continuous production program that now extends out to 2025. This strong order book creates continuity and certainty of workload for the Austal workforce in Alabama who have achieved so much. For our shareholders, the order book will drive continued growth in earnings over the next few years”
“Growth in the order book will also continue to drive ship support and sustainment revenues over the coming years adding further reliability to Austal’s earnings. This is an increasingly important part of the revenue base of the company and is likely to continue to grow significantly, well into the future, as ships are delivered and deployed around the world” he said.
With nine delivered, and a further ten vessels either under construction or awaiting construction (including the future USS Canberra) these two additional ships represent Austal’s eighteenth and nineteenth ships in the Independence Class.
The Littoral Combat Ship’s role continues to take shape as a key component of the Navy’s ability to gain sea control through distributed lethality. Austal continues to deliver these ships on-time and on-budget to support the needs of the fleet. The Independence-variant LCS, along with Austal’s highly successful EPF are designed, constructed and well positioned to meet the needs of the fleet today and into the future. The flexibility and capacity of the Austal USA shipyard to deliver the LCS and EPF are well suited to efficiently support the Navy’s desired fleet size of 355 ships with affordable solutions. (Austal)
US Navy Contracts Austal Order Materials EPF 14
AUSTAL (ASX: ASB) today announced Austal USA has been awarded a US$40,369,095 million (AU$54.9 million) order to fund the procurement of long lead-time materials for the construction of a 103-meter Expeditionary Fast Transport (EPF). This will be the fourteenth vessel of this class built by Austal for the US Navy. This contract follows a similar award for procurement of long lead time items for EPF 13.
This order means that Austal has received long lead material contracts for 2 EPF’s in this financial year, one funded from the FY18 US Federal budget and one from the FY19 US Federal budget. It is expected that these contracts will lead to full vessel contracts later in the fiscal year. If awarded, these full vessel contracts will ensure EPF construction continuity out until 4th quarter 2022.
Long lead-time materials for the additional vessel will include diesel engines, water jets and reduction gears.
Austal was awarded the initial contract to design and build the first 103-meter EPF in November 2008. The EPF is a high speed, shallow draft catamaran, designed for rapid intra-theatre transport of troops and cargo. Reaching rapid speeds of 35-45+ knots allows the EPF to be used for rapid deployment of conventional and special-forces with their equipment and supplies, making it an ideal platform for utilisation in emergency humanitarian disaster relief.
Since 2008, nine Spearhead-class EPFs have been delivered and are serving as an affordable solution to fulfilling the Military Sealift Command’s requirements worldwide. Three additional EPFs are under construction at Austal USA. (Austal)
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