Perth international shipbuilder Austal has announced signing of $300 million in new contracts as well as a big step forward for the company with the commencement of steel shipbuilding in the United States.

Sustain two Cape class patrol boats the company built for the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard in country Construct an additional two Evolved Cape class Patrol Boats (ECCPB’s, main picture) for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), announced by the Australian Government in April 2022. Undertake the Detailed Design and Construction (DD&C) of the United States Navy’s new Auxiliary Floating Dry Dock Medium (AFDM) under a US $128 million contract. In total the now awarded contracts are worth more than Au$300 million.

The new contracts are a great demonstration of Austal’s capability to take on multiple projects across diverse naval shipbuilding and support programs, in Australia and overseas. A floating dock contract was the second contract awarded for the company to build steel-hulled vessels at its naval shipyard in Mobile, Alabama. Austal is already building steel and aluminium vessels in Perth, but to date the Mobile yard has been building two classes of multi-hulled aluminium vessels.