Admiral Sees Future Of Shipbuilding At Austal

Adm. Daryl Caudle, chief of naval operations for the U.S. Navy, said he saw the future of American military shipbuilding in Mobile following a tour of Austal USA, AL.com reported. He singled out modular ship construction and distributed shipbuilding, both of which Austal has invested in heavily. Modular construction makes it easier for multiple shipyards to contribute to a specific vessel, which is distributed shipbuilding. Austal now builds modules that will be installed in Columbia- and Virginia-class nuclear submarines. “One of the main modules they build is the entire Command and Control suite for Virginia class,” Caudle said. “And when you see that module… they had one that was almost ready to be shipped up to Quonset Point. It’s like walking into a Virginia-class submarine control room. The thing is completely done, built, and the only thing that’s missing is really the computers that we put in for the sonar and fire control system.” He added that Austal’s work was taking hundreds of thousands of man-hours off the sub-builders’ plates, freeing them up for other work.