Austal christened USNS Trenton (JHSV 5) last week at its shipyard in Mobile, Alabama. USNS Trenton is the fifth of 10 Joint High Speed Vessels (JHSV) that Austal has under contract with the US Navy as part of an overall 10-ship block-buy contract worth over US$1.6 billion.
The 338-foot catamaran vessel was named Trenton by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, after the capital of the state of New Jersey and the site of George Washington's first military victory during the American Revolutionary War. , Trenton will soon join the four other JHSVs which have been delivered over the last two years including USNS Spearhead (JHSV 1) which recently left on her second deployment since she was delivered in 2012. According to Secretary Mabus, “Trenton and her sister ships are innovative ships with incredible amounts of speed, volume and flexibility for their size; capabilities the Navy will be able to leverage for decades to come.”
He continued, “The success of the program is the direct result of the hard work and dedication of so many incredible shipbuilding professionals here at Austal – the best I’ve ever worked with.”
Three JHSVs and six Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) are currently under construction in Austal’s Mobile, Alabama shipyard. Austal will launch one ship and send JHSV 5, out on Builder’s Sea Trials in the Gulf before the end of January.
For the LCS and JHSV programs, Austal, as prime contractor, is teamed with General Dynamics Mission Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics. For the JHSV program, General Dynamics is responsible for the design, integration and testing of the navigation and communication systems, C4I and aviation systems.