Thursday, December 31, 2009

Bill would limit Gulf fish farming appeal

Proposed legislation could make the Gulf of Mexico less appealing for the nation's first commercial offshore fish farms. Legislation proposed by Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., would be illegal to use oil or natural gas platforms for fish farming operations. Many consider the presence of 4,000 such platforms the Gulf's primary advantage as an aquaculture destination. Proponents have touted them as perfect workstations. (Source: Mobile Press-Register, 12/31/09)

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

County OKs funding for ceremony

MOBILE, Ala. – The Mobile County Commission approved a $40,000 contract with the Mobile Council Navy League to market the Jan. 16 commissioning ceremony for the littoral combat ship Independence, built by Austal USA for the General Dynamics team. The Navy pays for the ceremony and donations pay for receptions, gifts and special celebrations leading up to the event. Community leaders have said the ceremony could further Mobile's emergence as a military shipbuilding center. (Source: Mobile Press-Register, 12/29/09) Note: To the west of Mobile, Pascagoula, Miss., is already a well-known military shipbuilding center.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Contract: VT Halter, $86.7M

VT Halter Marine Inc., Pascagoula, Miss., is being awarded an $86,742,759 firm-fixed-price contract for detail design and construction of one oceanographic survey ship, T-AGS 66. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $87,100,607. Work will be performed in Moss Point, Miss., and is expected to be completed by April 2013. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 12/22/09)

Friday, December 18, 2009

Independence delivered to Navy

MOBILE, Ala. - The General Dynamics Littoral Combat Ship Team delivered Independence, LCS 2, a high-speed trimaran combatant ship, to the Navy Friday. The ship was constructed by team member Austal USA in Mobile. The delivery of Independence was preceded by the keel laying of its sister ship, Coronado, LCS 4, on Dec. 17. LCS 2 will remain in Mobile awaiting its commissioning Jan. 16, 2010. Independence is the second littoral combat ship delivered to the Navy. The first ship, Freedom, was built by the Lockheed Martin team. (Source: PRNewswire, 12/18/09)

Austal OKd to start JHSV work

MOBILE, Ala. - Austal USA received approval from the Navy and Department of Defense to start work on its first Joint High Speed Vessel. JHSV is a 103-meter military transport ferry that’s part of a potential $1.6 billion, 10-vessel contract. Fortitude, or JHSV 1, will carry military equipment, including vehicles and a helicopter, and troops at speeds of up to 43 knots. Austal is also building its second of two 127-meter littoral combat ships, Coronado, and held a keel laying this week. (Source: Mobile Press-Register, 12/17/09)

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

VT Halter parent wants to buy Bender

VT Halter Marine of Pascagoula’s parent company, Vision Technologies Systems, has offered $21 million cash for Bender Shipbuilding & Repair's Mobile shipyard, kick-starting a special auction process intended for companies in Chapter 11 bankruptcy to quickly sell property and repay debts. According to court documents, VT Halter would also assume certain Bender debts and liabilities. Vision Technologies is a subsidiary of Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd., which owns ST Aerospace Mobile at Brookely Field Industrial Complex. (Source: Mobile Press-Register, 12/16/09)

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Keel authentication ceremony held

AVONDALE, La. - Northrop Grumman held a keel authentication ceremony Friday for Somerset (LPD 25), the ninth ship in the LPD 17 series of San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ships being built by the company. Somerset is named in honor of the passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93, who prevented terrorist hijackers from reaching their target on Sept. 11, 2001. Somerset is the county in Pennsylvania in which United Flight 93 crashed. Construction of is taking place at the Avondale shipyard, with fabrication support from the three other company facilities in Pascagoula and Gulfport, Miss., and Tallulah, La. The 684-foot, 105-foot-wide LPD transport dock ships are used to transport and land Marines, their equipment and supplies by embarked air cushion or conventional landing craft and Expeditionary Fighting vehicles, amphibious assault vehicles, augmented by helicopters or vertical takeoff and landing aircraft such as the Osprey. (Source: Northrop Grumman, 12/11/09)

Friday, December 11, 2009

Contract: Northrop, $18.6M

Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Miss., is being awarded an $18,604,845 modification to previously awarded contract to exercise options for the accomplishment of follow yard class services for the DDG 51 class AEGIS Destroyer Program and will provide expert design, planning and material support services for both DDG 51 ship construction and modernization. Work will be performed in Pascagoula and is expected to be completed by August 2010. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 12/10/09)

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Coastal resource center ceremony slated

A grand opening ceremony will be held Monday in Jackson County, Miss., for the new $9 million, 20,000-square-foot Grand Bay Coastal Resources Center. It serves as headquarters for the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in the Pecan community of southeast Jackson County. The building includes a public interpretative area, office space, laboratories, classrooms and a dormitory and will be shared by the reserve and Grand Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The dedication coincides with the 10th anniversary of the reserve, which includes more than 18,000 acres of estuarine and upland habitat for purposes of scientific research and observation, education and stewardship. (Source: Mississippi Press, 12/05/09)

Friday, December 4, 2009

Cost looms too large in LCS competition?

Three members of the Alabama congressional delegation said in a letter to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus that the service is putting price ahead of quality and performance in preparing a winner-take-all showdown to buy up to 10 littoral combat ships. A draft bid request released last month is structured “to buy the cheapest ship without consideration of any other factor,” wrote Sen. Richard Shelby, Sen. Jeff Sessions, and Rep. Jo Bonner. The Navy is dramatically changing its approach to procuring the littoral combat ships. Instead of continuing with two hull designs, one built by General Dynamics and the other by Lockheed Martin, the Navy will choose a single structure. Austal USA, in Mobile, Ala., is part of the General Dynamics team. (Sources: Mobile Press-Register, Aviation Week, 12/04/09).

MSU picks research VP

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- A veteran Mississippi State faculty member and research scientist has been chosen as vice president for research and economic development at MSU. David R. Shaw assumes his new duties Jan. 1, pending approval by the board of trustees, State Institutions of Higher Learning. He succeeds Kirk Schulz, who left MSU to become president of Kansas State University. Shaw played a key role in the creation of several cross-disciplinary research centers that focus on the applications of remote sensing technology to resource management. Most recently, Shaw spearheaded formation of the NOAA-funded Northern Gulf Institute, a collaborative effort with Louisiana State and Florida State universities, University of Southern Mississippi, and the Dauphin Island Sea Laboratory in Alabama. NGI's program office is at Stennis Space Center. It focuses its research efforts on ecosystem management, coastal hazards and mitigation, and climate assessment and modeling. (Source: Starkville Daily News, 12/02/09)

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Contract: Northrop Grumman, $170.7M

Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, Inc., Pascagoula, Miss., is being awarded a letter contract with a not-to-exceed amount of $170,700,000 for long lead time material in support of construction of DDG 113 under the DDG 51 Class destroyer program. This contract provides propulsion gas turbines, generators, controllable pitch propeller and other components to support construction of DDG 113. Work is anticipated to be performed in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Alabama, Indiana, Louisiana., Mississippi, New York, Texas, Virginia and Washington. Work is expected to be completed by January 2013. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington Navy Yard, D.C., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 12/02/09)

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Workers OK contract extension

PASCAGOULA, Miss. – Union members voted to accept an offer by Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding to extend their work contract by two years. The vote was about 2,300 for an 275 against, according to the Sun Herald. The extension provides for a $1,000 bonus, a maximum 55-cent raise in January and another in early 2011. Workers keep the same health care coverage costs they negotiated in 2007. The contract will now run until March 2012. (Source: Sun Herald, 12/01/09)

Unions vote today on contract

PASCAGOULA, Miss. - Members of unions at the Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding Ingalls yard will begin voting today on extending the contract. Union leadership endorsed the move, saying it benefits both the workers and the company. If ratified, the contract will not end until March 2012 and will include two raises of 55 cents each for journeymen, less for other workers, and a $1,000 bonus in mid-December that would take the place of a cost-of-living raise set for early next year. (Source: Sun Herald, 12/01/09)