Austal nets US Navy T-AGOS surveillance ships contract
The Alabama-based shipyard has received a $113 million contract for detail design of the USN’s Auxiliary General Ocean Surveillance Ship T-AGOS 25 class.
Options under the contract for constructing up to seven ships bring its cumulative potential value to $3.195 billion.
Operated by Military Sealift Command (MSC), T-AGOS ships support anti-submarine warfare operations by offering passive and active acoustic surveillance capabilities.
Related Articles
Austal Australia converts patrol boat into unmanned vessel
Netherlands to arm ships and submarines with Tomahawk missiles
US Navy anti-sub exercise puts crewed-uncrewed teaming to the test
The 110m steel ‘small waterplane area twin hull’ (SWATH) vessels measure 110m long and gather data using Surveillance Towed-Array Sensor System (SURTASS) equipment.
The award is the latest steel shipbuilding contract for Austal USA, which also builds the USN’s Towing, Salvage and Rescue (T-ATS) ships and Auxiliary Floating Drydock Medium (AFDM).
The company is also building the USCG's Heritage-class offshore patrol cutters (OPCs).
Austal USA has teamed with L3Harris, Noise Control Engineering, TAI Engineering and Thoma-Sea Marine Constructors to deliver T-AGOS ships from its facility in Mobile, Alabama.
Related Programmes in Defence Insight
More from Naval Warfare
-
US lawmakers allocate an additional $1.1 billion for shipbuilding in FY2025
The fund includes extra money for constructing a third Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and a second Virginia-class submarine.
-
Latest Virginia-class submarine, the future USS Iowa, delivered to US Navy
The second Virginia-class vessel delivered in 2024, the USS Iowa is also the twelfth battle force vessel added to the US Navy across the year.
-
How bad management could put the US Navy’s cruiser fleet far behind Chinese capabilities
While China has been rapidly advancing with the development of the Type 055 class, the US Navy has been struggling to progress with the modernisation of its cruiser fleet.