USNS Millinocket (JHSV 3) Christened

Austal christened USNS Millinocket (JHSV 3) this morning (20 April) at its state-of-the-art shipyard in Mobile, Alabama. USNS Millinocket is the third of ten Joint High Speed Vessels (JHSV) Austal has under contract with the U.S. Navy as part of an overall 10-ship contract worth over $1.6 billion.

The 338-foot (103 metre) catamaran vessel was named Millinocket by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus on May 30, 2012, after the Maine towns of East Millinocket and Millinocket. According to Secretary Mabus, “Millinocket displays American values of community and ingenuity at their best. I chose to name the joint high speed vessel after East Millinocket and Millinocket to honor those values and the men and women of the community that represents them no less today than it did in the early 1900s.” 

The ship’s sponsor, the Honorable Karen Gordon Mills, was sworn in as Administrator of the Small Business Administration in April 2009. A Maine resident, Ms. Mills has served in the President’s Cabinet since January 2012, where she is a key member of the President’s economic leadership team reflecting the important role that small businesses and entrepreneurs play in our nation’s long-term economic growth and prosperity. 

Under her leadership, SBA had a record year in 2011, supporting more than $30 billion in lending to more than 60,000 small businesses across the United States. Over the last three years, Administrator Mills has streamlined and simplified SBA’s core loan programs, reduced paperwork, shortened turnaround times and increased transparency across the agency. 

“Administrator Mills was a particularly appropriate sponsor for this Navy ship,” said Austal USA President Craig Perciavalle, “it is a wonderful way to honor the more than 200 small businesses nationwide that support the JHSV program.” 

Over 600 naval and shipyard guests attended the ceremony, which was held underneath the ship, between the iconic twin hulls of the USNS Millinocket. Vice Admiral William R. Burke, USN, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Warfare Systems, was the principal speaker at the event.

Austal USA President, Craig Perciavalle, praised the ship, saying, “USNS Millinocket is a revolutionary new platform that will bring an unprecedented level of flexibility, mobility, efficiency and support to our Combatant Commanders and nation.” He also praised the shipbuilders, saying “The USNS Millinocket is a great ship, built by great Navy shipbuilders, master craftsmen who worked tirelessly to bring this new ship to life.” 

Austal USA is a full-service shipyard offering design, construction and high-speed 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 has been contracted by the U.S. Navy to build ten 103-metre JHSVs under a 10-ship, US$1.6 billion contract, one of which has already been delivered, and eight 127-metre Independence-variant LCS class ships (including USS Independence, delivered to the Navy in 2009), six of which are a part of a 10-ship, $3.5 billion contract.

Four JHSVs and four LCSs are currently under construction in Austal’s Mobile, Alabama shipyard.

For the LCS and JHSV programs, Austal, as prime contractor, is teamed with General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics. As the ship systems integrator for the LCS program, General Dynamics is responsible for the design, integration and testing of the ship’s electronic systems including the combat system, networks, and seaframe control. General Dynamics’ proven open architecture approach allows for affordable and efficient capability growth as technologies develop. 

These two contracts will require Austal to increase its Mobile, Alabama workforce to approximately 4,000 employees in order to fulfill the contract requirements.

Navy Adds High Speed Troop Carrier to Fleet

The Navy last weekend christened a high-speed catamaran that will join a growing fleet of shallow-draft troop carrier and supply vessels that the Defense Department envisions as the future of riverine operations.

“In this world, it’s important to have a flexible, adaptable, and affordable Navy” to meet ever-changing threats, Rear Adm. Lawrence Jackson said at the Saturday ceremony in the Mobile, Ala., shipyard of the Austal USA firm. “In this ship, the Millinocket, we have the perfect marriage of all three,” said Jackson, the deputy commander of the Navy’s Military Sealift Command.

The 338-foot, aluminum-hulled Millinocket was the third in the new class of Joint High Speed Vessels (JHSV) after USNS Spearhead, which is currently undergoing sea tests, and the USNS Choctaw County, which was christened in September.

A fourth JHSV, the USNS Fall River, named for the Massachusetts fishing town, is under construction by Austal, an Australian company. The Spearhead, the first in the class of ships, was delivered eight months late in December with initial cost overruns estimated at $31 million.

The Navy has plans for a total of 10 JHSVs at a projected cost of about $250 million each, and all will have the prefix designations of United States Naval Ships (USNS) as non-commissioned ships of the Navy’s Military Sealift Command, rather than the USS prefix designation for commissioned Navy ships.

Sailors and troops will go aboard the Millinocket only when needed. The ship will have a crew of 21 civilian mariners from the Sealift Command and “military mission personnel will embark as,” the Navy said last week in a statement.

The Millinocket is the first ship of that name to join the fleet since the SS Millinocket, a freighter, was torpedoed by a German U-boat in World War II. In a statement last week, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said that naming the ship after the adjoining towns of Millinocket and East Millinocket in Maine “honors the immense contributions and support to the military made by the men and women of these communities and the state of Maine.”

Karen G. Mills, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, broke the traditional champagne bottle on the Millinocket’s hull as the ship’s sponsor.

The ship, capable of speeds of 35 knots (40 mph) with a 15-foot draft, has berthing space for up to 42 crew members and 104 troops, plus airline-style seating for another 312 troops.

The Navy has billed the JHSVs, and the new Littoral Combat Ships, as fast and flexible additions to the fleet that will allow for troops and their gear to debark quickly for coastal and riverine operations.

Sea trials for the Millinocket will be delayed for several months because of yet another accident involving the Carnival Cruise Line.

The ship had been scheduled to go first from the Austal shipyard to the BAE Systems dry dock, also in Mobile, but the Carnival line’s 900-foot Triumph broke from its moorings at the BAE dry dock on April 3 in high winds, killing one worker and damaging the facility.