Austal Celebrates Keel Laying for U.S. Navy LCS

On June 25, 2013, Austal held a keel-laying ceremony for the fourth Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) – Montgomery (LCS 8). This is the second LCS of ten awarded by the Navy to Austal, as prime contractor, and the sixth keel laying ceremony celebrated by Austal, as prime, in less than three years. During that time Austal has grown tremendously, increasing by over 2,000 total employees, and doubling the size of the facility.

Mary Blackshear Sessions, the ship’s sponsor, was present to weld her initials onto the keel plate as the Keel Authenticator. She was assisted by Kyle Hinton, an “A” Class welder who has been part of the Austal team since November, 2011.

Mrs. Sessions is the wife of U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). She was born in Montgomery, Ala., and grew up in Gadsden, Ala., graduating from Gadsden High School. Mrs. Sessions attended Huntingdon College in Montgomery, earning a degree in Education and taught school for four years after marrying Jefferson Beauregard Sessions. The Sessions have lived in Mobile, Ala. for 39 years. They have three grown married children and six grandchildren. One of their son-in-laws is serving as a Commander in the U.S. Navy.

A traditional keel-laying ceremony marks the first significant milestone in the construction of the ship. Due to Austal’s modular approach to ship manufacture, 36 of the 37 modules used to form this 127-meter aluminum trimaran design are already under construction. For Austal, keel-laying marks the beginning of final assembly. Four modules have been moved from Austal’s Module Manufacturing Facility (MMF), two of which are erected in the final assembly bay in their pre-launch position. The rest will follow over the coming months.

Austal USA is a full-service shipyard offering design, construction and aluminum vessel service and repair. As Austal USA continues to expand its service and repair capabilities, the company is well-positioned for new business with engineering, test and trials capabilities, and a new waterfront facility on the Mobile Bay waterfront.

Austal is the prime contractor for a $3.5 billion contract with the U.S. Navy to build ten 127-meter Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship class vessels. Austal is also the prime contractor for a $1.6 billion contract to build ten 103-meter Joint High Speed Vessels (JHSV), two of which have already been delivered to the Navy.

For the LCS and JHSV programs, Austal, as prime contractor, is teamed with General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics. For the JHSV program, General Dynamics is responsible for the design, integration and testing of the ship’s navigation and communication systems, C4I and aviation systems. As the Independence-variant LCS ship systems integrator, General Dynamics is responsible for the design, integration and testing of the ship’s sea frame control, navigation and communication systems, C4I and aviation systems.

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