Hello gentlemen.As you said a while back Stu, its a unique...

Hello gentlemen.

As you said a while back Stu, its a unique company.

The WestPac Express pulls away from the pier on March 14 in Naha, Japan, after providing disaster relief to earthquake and tsunami victims. The U.S. Marine Corps has renewed the ferry's charter for up to two more years. (Lance Cpl. Heather Choate / Marine Corps)

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=8629487&c=ASI&s=SEA

"The base period of the new charter is for the ship's operation into August 2012, with three six-month option periods that would extend the service to January 2014. Base value of the fixed-price charter is $8.2 million, but the value of the contract rises to more than $30 million if all the options are exercised.

The contract announcement noted that three offers were received to provide high-speed ferry service to the Marines.

The 331-foot-long aluminum catamaran ferry was built by Austal in western Australia. Ten similar ships are being built by Austal USA in Mobile, Ala., under the Joint High Speed Vessel program for the U.S. Navy and Army.

In addition to moving military cargo throughout the Far East, the WestPac Express was active in March in providing disaster relief services in northeast Japan after the earthquake and tsunami devastated the region."


Here's an additional article on the first LCS "Independence" built by Austal which is still undergoing trials on its mine warfare systems.
The LCS Austal is building is quite different to the Wespac, being a trimaran, as can be seen below.


http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=8629442&c=SEA&s=TOP

The great long term aspect, in my view, is that the US is not going to build big bases offshore any more, as has been posted earlier by Disco Stu. So they are going to have these platforms they can put in any port and they are going to be building more of them, which puts Austal in a great long term position.
They say there is no problem with the ship, they are studying the warfare system before deploying it. If this is new technology and these ships are going to replace the old minesweepers, Austal are in the box seat with their model of the LCS which is the minesweeper model.