With eyes on more Navy maintenance work, Austal opens California shipyard – Breaking Defense

WEST 2023 — Austal USA has formally opened a brand new California shipyard situated simply south of the US Navy’s San Diego base with the Littoral Fight Ship Canberra (LCS-30) ready close by, the primary vessel scheduled to be serviced on the new restore facility.

The corporate, greatest identified for its main location in Cellular, Ala., closed on the brand new West Coast services again in December 2021. Since then the corporate has been getting ready the yard, which was initially a ship restore and storage facility, into an area able to service Navy warships, Larry Ryder, Austal USA’s vice chairman of enterprise improvement, informed Breaking Protection forward of the Monday ceremony.

Ryder mentioned so far Austal has invested $100 million into shopping for and revitalizing the 15-acre facility, which has 678 ft of shoreline. That funding additionally consists of constructing a 9,000-ton floating dry dock which is scheduled to reach this summer season.

Dry docks, or graving docks, because the title implies, are contained areas in shipyards with the required infrastructure to empty the water out from beneath a ship in order that shipyard personnel can extra simply entry areas of the vessel that will in any other case be underneath water. As soon as upkeep is full, the shipyard floods the area with water to permit the ship to sail away.

The distinction with a floating dry dock is that the area itself is movable and might be situated close by the port, however not monopolize useful land.

“The benefit of a floating dry dock is it’s cheaper than constructing and sustaining a graving dock,” Ryder mentioned. “It additionally gives mobility in the event you… determine you should preserve it at a distinct location.”

Austal’s new shipyard, Ryder mentioned, will likely be primarily used for upkeep work, versus constructing new ships, which strains up with the corporate’s ambitions to develop its upkeep income to as excessive as 50 p.c of its income.

Rusty Murdaugh, Austal USA’s president, informed Breaking Protection shortly after he took over as the corporate’s chief government that constructing a stronger portfolio of ship upkeep work was one in every of his strategic targets because the Independence-class Littoral Fight Ship manufacturing line involves an finish.

The opposite half of Murdaugh’s strategic transition includes the corporate’s comparatively new metal development line, which has received Austal USA quite a lot of contract awards since its inception in addition to made it a contender if the US Navy strikes ahead with a second shipyard for the Constellation-class frigate.