Austal USA showcased a detailed model of the company’s T-AGOS 25 class ocean surveillance ships at SNA 2024. This was the first time we have seen a model of the ship.
Last year, the company was awarded a contract covering the Detail Design and Construction (DD&C) of seven T-AGOS 25 class ships. The company partnered with L3Harris Technologies (L3Harris), Noise Control Engineering (NCE), TAI Engineering (TAI), and Thoma-Sea Marine Constructors (TMC).
The T-AGOS 25 class
The T-AGOS 25 is a new class of ocean surveillance ships that will succeed the US Navy’s four Victorious-class vessels and the lone USNS Impeccable (T-AGOS 23). Like the prior vessels, T-AGOS 25 is of a Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull (SWATH) design and will feature the AN/UQQ-2 Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System (SURTASS).
T-AGOS ships will carry out Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) operations thanks to SURTASS’ twin TL-29A passive detection arrays and single compact active low frequency array. The ships will also collect underwater acoustic data in support of the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System (IUSS).
The ships will have a length of 359.25 ft (109.5 m), a beam of 104.33 ft (31.8 meters), a draft of 30.12 ft (9.18 m) at full load, a sprint speeds of 22 knots and displacement of 9,099 tons. Internally, the ships will be capable of accommodating a crew of 64. In terms of propulsion, the ships will feature four electric motors, two at 8.9 MW each and the other two at 5.3 MW each. The ships will have two fixed pitch propellers and two bow thrusters. Powering this Integrated Electric Propulsion (IEP) setup will be three diesel generators and one GE gas turbine.
In terms of range, the ships will have a reach of 960 nmi at a full sprint speed of 22 knots, or 3,000 nmi at 10 knots. However, these ships will likely spend most of their time at a towing speed of 5 knots, which will give them a range of 9,000 nmi. All these qualities will make the T-AGOS 25 class of ships the largest and fastest T-AGOS vessels ever operated by the US Navy.
Austal USA’s Diversification and Expansion
The T-AGOS 25 contract award was one of several contracts Austal USA has won that involve the construction of steel ships. Austal USA, which has primarily built aluminum ships such as the Independence-class and Spearhead-class of ships, expanded its shipyard in Mobile, Alabama to include a steel construction line.
The company held the curtain drop ceremony for the 117k square foot (10.8k square meters) state-of-the-art facility on the 19th of April, 2022. This was part of an effort to expand and diversify the company’s business as work on the Independence-class ships started to wind down.
The expansion was funded in half by the Austal USA, while the other half was funded by the Defense Department under the Defense Production Act Title III (DPA) Agreement. The Defense Department provided $50 million, which Austal USA matched with another $50 million.
Ever since then the company has won contracts to build the US Coast Guard’s Heritage-class Offshore Patrol Cutters (OPC), Navajo-class Towing, Salvage and Rescue Ships (T-ATS), an Auxiliary Floating Dry Dock Medium (AFDM), and just recently Landing Craft Utility (LCU) 1700 class craft as well as the Expeditionary Medical Ships (EMS).
