By Troy Turner
MOBILE – The U.S. Navy has awarded Alabama-based shipbuilder Austal USA a $516 million contract for continued work on the first in a new class of ocean surveillance vessels. Such ships support Navy antisubmarine warfare operations.
Known as the TAGOS-25 class, the Navy has plans for seven ships in the class, and if all seven are built the contract value could rise to almost $3.2 billion.
“The Navy’s desire to replace the five in-service TAGOS ships with seven larger and faster TAGOS-25s can be viewed as a response by the Navy to the submarine modernization efforts of countries such as China and Russia,” according to a March 2024 report to congress by the Congressional Research Service.
TAGOS ships gather underwater acoustical data to support the mission of the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System, by providing a ship platform capable of theater anti-submarine acoustic surveillance.
The Navy estimates in its FY2024 and FY2025 budget submissions that the first ship in the class will cost $789.6 million to procure. The estimated first-ship cost has grown by $355.2 million, or 81.8%, “due to several factors affecting shipbuilding prices including direct material inflation, supply chain challenges, and increased nonrecurring engineering costs.”
A contract awarded more than a year ago on May 18, 2023, awarded Austal $113.9 million for detail design of the TAGOS-25 class.
The overall deal includes options for the detail design and construction of up to seven TAGOS 25s, plus associated work, and exercising the options would bring the cumulative value of the contract to the almost $3.2 billion total.
The Navy is proposing to defer procurement of the second TAGOS-25 class ship from FY2025 to FY2026.
In the latest contract awarded to Austal it states that work on the first ship will be performed in Mobile (42%); Houma, Louisiana (13%); Camden, New Jersey (13%); Shelton, Connecticut (6%); Cincinnati, Ohio (5%); Grove City, Pennsylvania (3%); Semmes, Alabama (3%); Chesapeake, Virginia (2%); Milford, Delaware (2%); New Orleans, Louisiana (1%); and various locations across the U.S., each less than 1% (10%), and is expected to be completed by May 2028.
Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting agency.
The Navy-Austal connection
The Navy is looking to increase the size of its fleet and improve service and maintenance, and Austal has become a steady producer earning a variety of Navy and Coast Guard contracts.
Earlier this year in April, Austal USA was awarded an almost $12 million contract modification for its work on Littoral Combat Ships, of which one of the two classes are produced in Mobile, making the work part of a long list of such projects for that type of vessel.
Littoral Combat Ships, of which the Independence class is built in Mobile, are multipurpose warships intended to perform various duties, especially in combat roles near shore.
Several other service vessels are produced by the shipbuilder, which in June 2022 was awarded a potential $3.3 billion multi-ship deal from the U.S. Coast Guard for design and construction of up to 11 Offshore Patrol Cutters.
Troy Turner is the editor and senior consultant for AlaDefense.com and can be contacted at [email protected].
Related stories of interest:
