US Navy extends Austal charter

With four years of service supporting the operations of the US Marine Corps, the 101 metre aluminium catamaran ?WestPac Express?, built by the Australian shipyard Austal, has been re-chartered by the US Navy to continue in its role for a further 18 months.

After a competitive bid process, the Theatre Support Vessel (TSV), now more commonly referred to as a High Speed Connector (HSC), was first chartered to the US Navy in July 2001 for a ?proof of concept? period. This charter was the first time the US military had contracted a commercial vessel of this type for military support. The charter was so successful that the US Navy?s Military Sealift Command signed a three year charter in January 2002, again after receiving several competing offers.

Austal, in joint venture with Bender Shipbuilding and Repair, established a new shipyard in 1999 specialising in aluminium construction. With eight commercial vessels now completed, ranging in size from 25 to 58 metres the yard is currently building 2 x 105m metre fast passenger-vehicle catamarans. A current expansion project due for completion in October 2005 will quadruple the size of the existing Mobile facility in preparation for commencement of the US Navy?s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) construction.

As a member of the General Dynamics Littoral Combat Ship (GD LCS) team, Austal is the designer and lead yard for the construction of a new breed of combat ships specifically developed to operate in the littoral (near shore) environment. The GD LCS is based on Austal?s 127 metre, high speed trimaran platform that provides superior payload and aviation capacity. Construction of a potential 60 to 85 ships over a 15 year period has been identified for future US navy fleet requirements.