The U.S. Navy has awarded Austal a $11,8 million contract to provide engineering and management services for advance planning and design in support of the Post Shakedown Availability for the Littoral Combat Ship Montgomery (LCS 8).
Under the contract, Austal will provide design, planning, and material support services for the vessel, including program management, advance planning, engineering, design, material kitting, liaison, and scheduling.
Every new ship conducts a post-shakedown availability (PSA) which is designed to harness results of a thorough test and evaluation period. During the availability, contractors repair or improve the design of the ship in preparation for final contractor trials.
USS Montgomery was launched on August 6, 2014 and christened four months later in November 2014.
Austal has so far delivered three Independence-variant LCS to the U.S. Navy; two as subcontractor (LCS 2 and LCS 4) and one as prime contractor (LCS 6) under a separate 10 vessel, US$3.5 billion contract awarded by the U.S. Navy in 2010.
The program grew to 26 vessels when the U.S. Navy funded two additional ships , LCS 25 and LCS 26, to Austal and Lockheed Martin in April 2016. Austal has seven LCS under construction at its US shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, with Montgomery (LCS 8) scheduled for delivery later in the year.