Unique Austal warship design touted
BILOXI -- The novel trimaran design of a naval warship under construction at Austal USA in Mobile took the spotlight Wednesday at the annual American Society of Naval Engineers national symposium.
Engineer Gene Miller of Bath Iron Works led the presentation, pointing to the speed range, stability and flight-deck support provided by the trimaran, or three-hulled, design.
Bath is the prime contractor on the Austal-built ship, part of a General Dynamics Corp.-led team that is building one of two first-of-their-kind warships designed to operate in shallow, or littoral, waters. The other is being built in Wisconsin by a team led by Lockheed Martin Corp.
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Pointing to the bottom of an LCS model on display at the Austal booth, Bill Pfister, Austal's vice president of governmental programs, said the vessel's design echoes a Polynesian canoe and is more like a "slender, stable monohull" than a tri-hull. The design consists of a main hull flanked by two considerably smaller ones.
Built of aluminum, the vessel is lighter and therefore more fuel-efficient than the competing steel ship, Pfister said.
The Navy, which hopes to order 55 of the littoral combat ships, moved forward early this month with plans to buy three more of them over the next several years.
On April 1, the Navy issued requests for proposals to both General Dynamics and Lockeed, and the contractors have 60 days from that date to respond. The Navy has said it intends to award the top bidder a contract for two vessels and the other team a contract for one.
Representatives from the Lockheed team were also at the symposium touting their design, with naval architect Mark Masor on Tuesday highlighting the terrorism-fighting capabilities of the Lockheed LCS, the Freedom, which is about three-quarters complete.
General Dynamics' LCS, named the Independence, is scheduled to be rolled out and launched in Mobile next weekend, and Miller said sea trials will take place later this year.
Masor declined to
discuss the advantages of a steel monohull over the aluminum trimaran design, other than to say that the steel hull offers superior "survivability and maneuverability."
The price tags for both prototypes have ballooned to more than a half-billion dollars from an original $220 million estimate, and Congress has been reluctant to buy into the program.
Lawmakers recently approved money for only one of the three new LCS vessels the Navy has said it wants. Industry observers have also voiced concerns about the design of the ships, citing test problems on the Lockheed ship and past problems with a rudder on the civilian passenger vehicle Hawaii Superferry built by Austal possibly being manifested in the LCS.
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Both Miller and Bob Browning, Austal chief executive officer, said that couldn't be further from the truth since the LCS is based on a different civilian design, one that Browning said has operated successfully in the Canary Islands for three years. The Superferry is a two-hulled
catamaran. Browning described the rudders on the massive LCS as "without a doubt the most robust struc ture in the whole ship."
He said the massive warship, with a displacement of 3,000 metric tons, will offer a smooth and steady ride, and also offer fuel savings in the long run. Further, the rudder problem has been fixed on the second Hawaii Superferry, Browning said.
As for the LCS, Pfister said matching the Navy's needs to a new, $460 million cost cap will be a challenge
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Good news sounds like the granite giant will be having some exterior and interior remodeling. I hope the exterior iwill be all glass with an A frme top and some lighting going down the rhe 4 corner sides .
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