Austal USA begins work on new ship assembly facilities

Perth shipbuilder Austal’s US arm has celebrated the start of construction for the company’s newest final assembly facility with a groundbreaking ceremony (pictured) at its yard in Mobile, Alabama.

The infrastructure expansion, which will be to the south of Austal USA’s waterfront facility, will include a new assembly building, waterfront improvements, and a new shiplift system. The project is scheduled to be complete and fully operational by summer of 2026.

The construction of this new building continues the expansion Austal USA began in March 2021 with the groundbreaking of the steel ship panel line.

This latest expansion provides a new assembly bay which will enable the erection of large steel modules for US Navy and Coast Guard ships, including the Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC) and TAGOS-25 ship programme.

Governor Kay Ivey Ellen McNair said: “As evidenced by this major expansion, Austal USA continues to be both an economic engine to Alabama and a driving force behind U.S. Naval modernization.

“We are proud to be home to one of our U.S. Navy’s most relied upon shipbuilders.”

The new assembly building will occupy four and a half acres and will be approximately 400 feet long by 480 feet wide providing over 192,000 square feet of new covered manufacturing space.

It will consist of three bays enabling erection of the Coast Guard’s Offshore Patrol Cutter and Navy’s TAGOS-25 ocean surveillance steel ships as well as providing flexibility to manufacture modules for submarine and other surface ship programmes.

When this expansion is complete, Austal USA’ s Mobile, Ala. facility will include a 117,000 square foot steel panel line, two module manufacturing facilities totaling over one million square feet of covered manufacturing space optimised for serial production, and seven assembly bays providing over 400,000 square feet of indoor erection space.

In all, the Mobile facility covers 180 acres and, when this project is complete, there will be more than 1.5 million square feet of indoor manufacturing space.

Picture: Austal USA