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The US Navy has awarded Austal’s American subsidiary a US$21 million contract for post-delivery services on the Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Charleston (LCS 18).
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The works will be provided by Austal's west coast operations team, which will perform the dry docking in Seattle, Washington, with services to be completed by next September.
Announcing the award, Austal chief executive David Singleton said the contract was another demonstration of Austal USA’s new ‘ops normal’ for their growing support business.
“While it is not our intention to announce every support contract of this type and size, we certainly value and appreciate Austal USA’s growing involvement in dry docking activities for the LCS and the long-term significance and importance of the work to both the US Navy and Austal USA, given the size of the LCS fleet by 2024,” Singleton said.
Austal also announced that it would expand its support operations in San Diego and Singapore to "meet the US Navy’s current and planned deployments of littoral combat ships and expeditionary fast transport ships", as the number of Austal-built ships in the US Navy continues to grow.
Austal is contracted to deliver 19 littoral combat ships for the US Navy, with 10 delivered since 2010, five currently under construction and four scheduled for construction, with USS Charleston commissioned in March 2019.
The USS Charleston (LCS 18) is a 127-metre small surface combatant, outfitted with mission packages (made up of mission systems and support equipment) that deploy manned and unmanned vehicles and sensors in support of mine countermeasures, anti-submarine warfare or surface warfare missions.
