Destroyer arrives in Mobile

MOBILE, Ala. - The William P. Lawrence arrived in Mobile on Friday, where her crew will remain until the formal commissioning ceremony on June 4. After the commissioning, the ship will head for its home port in San Diego. The ship is 510 feet long and carries a crew of about 300. The 60th Arleigh Burke-class destroyer was built at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., and is the 28th destroyer and 90th surface combatant from the Pascagoula shipyard. The ship is named for Vice Adm. William Porter Lawrence, who received his Naval Aviator Wings at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla. (Source: Mobile Press-Register, 05/28/11)

Contract: General Dynamics, $744.1M

General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Co., San Diego, Calif., is being awarded a $744,129,956 modification to previously awarded contract for the procurement of the detail design and construction of two mobile landing platform ships. Work will be performed in San Diego, Calif. (62 percent); Mobile, Ala. (7 percent); Pittsburgh, Pa. (6 percent); Beloit, Wis. (5 percent); Crozet, Va. (2 percent); Chesapeake, Va. (2 percent); and Belle Chasse, La. (1 percent), with other efforts performed at various sites throughout the United States (8 percent) and outside the United States (7 percent). Work is expected to be complete by February 2014. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 05/27/11)

VT Halter wins contract

VT Halter Marine won a contract to build a 112-foot offshore articulated tug barge for New York-based Bouchard Transportation Co. Inc. The tug will be similar to others built for Bouchard in previous years by Halter Marine. Construction is set to begin next month at the Moss Point Marine facility in Escatawpa, with delivery September 2012. The company has 1,800 workers at yards in Moss Point, Pascagoula and Escatawpa. (Source: Mississippi Press, 05/26/11)

Navy rejects ship

A new ship designed to carry a billion-dollar ballistic missile tracking radar failed its acceptance trials earlier this month and will need repairs before it can enter service. The Howard O. Lorenzen, built by VT Halter Marine at Moss Point, Miss., is a 534-foot-long ship intended to carry the Cobra Judy Replacement radar, a key sensor used in treaty monitoring and verification for ballistic missile issues. Repair will be done at Kiewit Offshore Services in Corpus Christi, Texas. (Source: Defense News, 05/26/11)

Avondale to be subject of study

NEW ORLEANS, La. - As the Avondale shipyard moves toward closing in 2013, researchers from several universities are teaming to study the 73-year-old facility's economic and cultural contributions to the region. In the coming months, faculty from Loyola, Tulane, Southern University New Orleans and the University of New Orleans plan to survey current and former shipyard employees on a range of topics. Part of the research will focus on examining potential mental and physical health impacts the winding down of the facility may be having on its shrinking workforce. Northrop Grumman, which owned the yard until it was spun off as part of Huntington-Ingalls, decided last year to close the yard. (Source: Times-Picayune, 05/22/11)

Austal growth and the Big Six

MOBILE, Ala. - Austal USA's transformation from a commercial ferry builder to a player for Department of Defense contracts has been impressive. But it isn't yet in the same league as the Big Six. Part of the reason it still needs to prove the value of the ships it's building, and get into position to build even more complex vessels. (Source: Mobile Press-Register, 05/22/11)

DDG 110 leaves Pascagoula shipyard

The Navy's latest Aegis guided missile destroyer, the William P. Lawrence, left Ingalls Shipbuilding Thursday and headed out for several days in the Gulf of Mexico. It will later arrive in Mobile, Ala., for its June 4 commissioning before heading to its home port in San Diego. The ship is 510 feet and weighs 9,500 tons and can carry a crew of 300. Four gas-turbine propulsion plans will power the ship to speed above 30 knots. Christened in April 2010, DDG 110 honors the late Vice Adm. William P. Lawrence, who spent nearly six years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. The ship is the 28th destroyer built at the Pascagoula shipyard. (Sources: Sun Herald, 05/19/11, Mississippi Press, 05/20/11)

Oysters likely to be wiped out

BILOXI, Miss. - As record amounts of freshwater head down the Mississippi River toward the Mississippi Sound, the oyster industry can expect to face extreme losses, an official with the Department of Marine Resources said Tuesday. Oysters will be hit hard because they're a stationary species; shrimp, finfish and crabs, which are mobile, are expected to be able to move ahead of freshwater entering the salty waters of the Sound, and the effect on the adults should be minimal, said Scott Gordon, director of the Shellfish Bureau, Office of Marine Fisheries. (Source: Sun Herald, 05/17/11)

Some fish healthy, some not

Alabama researchers fishing within 15 miles of Dauphin Island last week caught more than 300 red snapper and found no sign of infection. The Alabama scientists also caught vermillion snapper, lane snapper, triggerfish and ruby red lips, none of which showed any visible abnormalities. A team from Louisiana State University working off Alabama earlier in the week reported catching some fish in the same area that showed signs of disease, either lesions on the skin or internal damage to the liver. Concern over marine life increased in the wake of last year’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill. (Source: Mobile Press-Register, 05/15/11)

Ingalls to research welding improvements

Huntington Ingalls Industries' Pascagoula, Miss., shipyard won a $2.7 million grant for a project to improve shipyard welding. Ingalls was one of six shipyards sharing about $14.6 million in project grants from the National Shipbuilding Research Program. Funding is from the U.S. Navy and industry groups. The idea is to develop a process to eliminate over-welding to reduce distortion. (Source: Mobile Press-Register, 05/09/11)

Another concern for Gulf?

The Army Corps of Engineers plans to open the Bonnet Carre Spillway Monday, sending fresh water through Lake Pontchartrain, through a strait and into the Gulf of Mexico. It’s rarely done because of the effect it has on the marine life and the Mississippi Sound. But the Mississippi River is rising, and it is an attempt to divert some of the water before it gets to New Orleans. One concern, in addition to marine life, is it could impact the oil spill research. (Source: Sun Herald, 05/06/11)

Army transfers JHSVs to Navy

The Army has transferred to the Navy all five of its Joint High Speed Vessels. The Memorandum of Agreement was signed May 2, and clarifies relationships, identifies roles and responsibilities and provides an implementation plan. Initially the JHSV program was envisioned to have five of the first 10 JHSVs assigned to the Army, with the Navy getting the rest. But at the Army/Navy Warfighter Talks in December 2010, both services agreed to assign all of the vessels to the Navy. The Military Sealift Command will crew the JHSVs with civilian mariners or contract mariners. Joint High Speed Vessels will be used for fast transport of troops, military vehicles and equipment. (Source: NNS, 05/05/11) Gulf Coast note: The catamaran ships are built by Austal USA in Mobile, Ala.