USA — US Navy Orders Material for JHSV 4 and 5

As the prime con­trac­tor, Austal cur­rent­ly has con­tracts to build the first three JHSVs as part of a 10-ves­sel pro­gram val­ued at up to AUD $2 bil­lion. Today’s award funds the acqui­si­tion of long lead time mate­r­i­al for JHSV 4 and 5.

The US Navy has exer­cised con­tract options fund­ing Austal’s acqui­si­tion of long lead-time equip­ment asso­ci­at­ed with the con­struc­tion of two addi­tion­al 103 metre Joint High Speed Ves­sels (JHSV). Source: Austal Click to enlarge

Austal USA Pres­i­dent and COO Joe Rel­la commented, 

“This award sig­ni­fies the US Navy’s con­tin­ued com­mit­ment to the JHSV pro­gramme and con­fi­dence in Austal’s abil­i­ty to reli­ably deliv­er the pre­de­ces­sor ships on time and bud­get. The long lead-time mate­r­i­al con­tract award also ensures employ­ment con­ti­nu­ity for our US workforce.” 

Austal was award­ed the ini­tial con­tract to design and build the first 103 metre JHSV in Novem­ber 2008, with con­tracts for an addi­tion­al two ves­sels award­ed in Jan­u­ary this year. Options for the remain­ing sev­en ves­sels are expect­ed to be award­ed between FY10 and FY13. 

Sim­i­lar to the Austal-built “West­Pac Express” oper­at­ed by the US Marines for the past eight years, the JHSV will be capa­ble of trans­port­ing troops and their equip­ment, sup­port­ing human­i­tar­i­an relief efforts, and reach­ing speeds in excess of 35 knots ful­ly loaded. The ves­sels will be a joint-use plat­form oper­at­ed by both the Unit­ed States Army and Navy. 

Con­struc­tion of JHSV 1 “Spear­head” is cur­rent­ly under­way (pic­tured) at Austal’s US facil­i­ty in Mobile, Alaba­ma, with a keel lay­ing cer­e­mo­ny to be held in com­ing weeks. JHSV 2 is sched­uled to com­mence con­struc­tion in Sep­tem­ber this year, with JHSV 3 to com­mence in mid-2011. 

Long lead-time mate­r­i­al for JHSV 4 and 5 will include main propul­sion engines, water jets, reduc­tion gears and oth­er major equip­ment items. 

Gen­er­al Dynam­ics Advanced Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems is the plat­form mis­sion sys­tems engi­neer­ing agent respon­si­ble for the design, inte­gra­tion and test of the ship’s elec­tron­ic mis­sion sys­tems, includ­ing an open archi­tec­ture com­put­ing infra­struc­ture, inter­nal and exter­nal com­mu­ni­ca­tions, elec­tron­ic nav­i­ga­tion, avi­a­tion and arma­ment systems. 

Press release:
Austal