T-ATS is an ocean-going tug, salvage, and rescue ship [U.S. Navy rendering
Austal USA has been awarded a $79.2 million U.S. Navy contract choice for the development of T-ATS 15, a Navajo-class Towing, Salvage, and Rescue Ship. With the award, the corporate is now underneath contract for 5 T-ATS, with T-ATS 11 and T-ATS 12 underneath development on its metal meeting line.
T-ATS will present ocean-going tug, salvage, and rescue capabilities to assist U.S. Navy fleet operations and will likely be a multi mission frequent hull platform able to towing heavy ships. These ships can even have the ability to assist present missions, together with oil spill response, humanitarian help, and extensive space search and surveillance.
“Construction of the T-ATS program is well underway at Austal USA. We are very pleased with the performance of our steel panel line,” Austal USA president Rusty Murdaugh stated. “This contract award, bringing our total T-ATS program to five ships, illustrates the Navy’s continued confidence in our team’s demonstrated ability to deliver valuable capability on-budget and on-schedule.”
Austal USA says that it “will utilize its proven ship manufacturing processes and innovative methods that incorporate lean manufacturing principles, modular construction, and moving assembly lines to build these ships, all housed under the company’s state-of-the-art enclosed steel production facility.”
Construction on T-ATS 15 will begin in early 2024 with supply deliberate for the top of 2027.
In addition to T-ATS, as we reported earlier, Austal USA started development earlier this month on the Navy’s Auxiliary Floating Dry Dock Medium. These two packages together with the contracts awarded for the U.S. Coast Guard Heritage-class Offshore Patrol Cutters and the Navy’s TAGOS-25 ocean surveillance ships will hold the corporate’s metal manufacturing facility busy for a number of years into the longer term.
