Navy Awards Austal, Bath Iron Works And Bollinger Shipyards JHSV Design Contracts

Defense Daily, Feb 1, 2008

By Geoff Fein

The Navy last night awarded three, $3 million, phase one firm fixed price contracts to develop a preliminary design for the Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV).

The winning bids were Mobile, Ala.-based Austal USA, General Dynamics' [GD] Bath Iron Works, Brunswick, Maine; and Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, La.

NAVSEA received multiple bids for the design contract. However, it's not known how many shipyards competed to build the inter-theater transport for the Army and Navy.

Maersk Line, Ltd., did submit a bid that included ship architects Gibbs and Cox and Derecktor Shipyards.

The Navy is expected to downselect to a single phase two contract in late 2008.

"Once delivered, the Joint High Speed Vessel will be a key component of the U.S. military's expeditionary warfare capability," said Rear Adm. Charles Goddard, program executive officer for ships. "This high speed transport will carry soldier or Marines, with their gear, to harbors that would normally be unusable by conventional maritime assets."

The JHSV program is a joint effort between the Army and the Navy to acquire high-speed vessels for the two branches of the U.S. military.

A Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) allows the U.S. Navy to use its surface ship acquisition expertise in acquiring these vessels for the Army, which will assume full responsibility post acquisition. The JHSV program merges the Army Theater Support Vessel (TSV) and the Navy High Speed Connector (HSC), taking advantage of the inherent commonality between the two programs.

JHSV will be used for fast intra-theater transportation of troops, military vehicles and equipment. Currently, the U.S. military leases two HSVs each capable of achieving speeds of more than 30 knots.

JHSV will be built to commercial survivability standards and will use commercial off the shelf (COTS) components. The Navy also had a cost goals for JHSV of $150 million for the lead ship and $130 million for follow-on ships. The program calls for building a total of eight ships: five for the Army and three for the Navy. The first vessel must be delivered no later than 26 months after the award date. The JHSV RFP went out in late August and proposals were due to NAVSEA by Oct. 31 (Defense Daily, Dec. 10).

The Navy is requiring JHSV to have a helicopter-capable flight deck and deck space adjacent to the flight deck, sized to park a helicopter. And while JHSV will be built to commercial standards and have no combat systems, there is an option for a force protection package.

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TICKER(S): General Dynamics' [GD]: