Austal responded promptly to a report on the ADM website (21/10) that the US Navy is planning to slash the number of Joint High Speed Vessels (JHSV) built by Austal USA from 21 to just 10 ships.
The company’s Perth-based Australian parent says there is no ‘plan’ as such to reduce the number of ships, though the US Navy is exploring multiple alternative force structures for its 313-strong fleet of surface ships as it looks for ways to rein in spending.
The US Navy’s most recent Annual Naval Vessel Construction Plan, submitted last year, actually called for 41 JHSVs - not including the five originally earmarked for the US Army but which have recently been re-assigned to the US Navy.
The next update to this plan, under new legislation, will be in the Pentagon’s next Quadrennial Defense Review in 2014.
Meanwhile the program is powering ahead, according to Austal.
The first of the JHSVs has been launched and was recently christened USNS Spearhead at a naming ceremony in Mobile.
The second and third are under construction and the company has firm contracts for a further four.
ADM understands contracts for two more ship will be signed around February next year and a contract for a 10th ship will be signed some time during the subsequent 12 months.
The seven ships currently under contract are worth some US$280 million a year in revenue to Austal between 2012 and 2015, ADM was told; the company’s current order book stands at AUD$1.8 billion, including the Customs service’s eight Cape-class patrol boats and the US Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program.
Austal has delivered the first of 12 Independence-class trimaran LCSs sought by the US Navy, with the second about 75 per cent complete and two more under contract.
A contract to build the fifth and sixth Independence-class LCSs is anticipated around March 2012, ADM understands.