Austal Limited (Austal) announced on Monday (Dec 21) that Austal USA has been awarded a contract for US$51,684,797 to its 11-ship $3.5 billion Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) contract for the U.S. Navy. This contract modification is expected to increase to US$198,385,545 over three years if options are exercised. This work includes design services for upgrades to the LCS and preliminary design for the US Navy’s future Frigate.
“This contract directly reflects our customer’s confidence in Austal’s ability to build and support highly advanced ships and to meet today’s changing requirements,” said Austal Chief Executive Officer Andrew Bellamy.
Work will be performed at Austal’s state-of-the-art ship manufacturing facility in Mobile, Alabama, USA. Work will begin immediately based on the US$51,684,797 funding with an additional US$14 million funding expected in March 2016 with the remaining funding expected in two yearly increments 12 months after the initial awards.
“This agreement is a key indicator of our maturing support business in the US,” said Bellamy.
Austal’s LCS and Frigate design services consist of special studies supporting engineering design and trade-offs, core class studies that support program management efforts including configuration control and maintenance of the class design for ships under construction, and class services which include ongoing technical support for design modifications and maintenance of the LCS configuration and baseline design for delivered ships as well as future flight upgrades. These upgrades include preliminary design efforts for the LCS transition to the frigate.
Source: www.austal.com