Austal United States started building on the Navy’s Auxiliary Floating Dry Dock Medium (AFDM) at the business’s Gulf Coast ship production center recently. AFDM is the 3rd program to start building on Austal United States’s steel production line complying with T-ATS 11 and also 12 – the initial 2 of 4 united state Navy Towing, Salvage, and also Rescue (T-ATS) ships the business is under agreement to develop.
The AFDM is a “Rennie”- kind drifting completely dry dock which suggests it has continual wing wall surfaces and also a number of sectional pontoons to give the security and also variation called for to raise and also immerse vessels from the water making use of buoyancy.It has a 18,000 LT training capability and also a clear deck workplace of 90,800 square feet. The craft has a total size of 694 feet, total pontoon breadth of 157 feet, and also an elevation of 65 feet from standard to wing deck.The vessel style includes attributes to boost operability and also maintainability based upon Austal United States’s experience and also lessons picked up from possessing, running and also preserving a comparable completely dry dock at its Mobile, Alabama, ship fixing center.
