EPF 10 completes builder’s trials

MOBILE, Ala. - The Navy's 10th Expeditionary Fast Transport vessel, Burlington (EPF 10), successfully completed a week-long builder's trials June 29 dockside at the Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, Ala. The ship engaged in the trials with the Supervisor of Shipbuilding Gulf Coast – based in Pascagoula, Miss. - working with Austal to demonstrate the ship’s equipment and system operation. The EPF ship then spent two days underway in the Gulf of Mexico performing tests to demonstrate its readiness. Maneuverability trials tested the ship's four steerable water jets while a series of high-speed turns demonstrated the stability and agility of the EPF catamaran hull form. "Burlington performed very well and is well on the way towards her delivery as the next Expeditionary Fast Transport vessel to the Navy," said Capt. Scot Searles, Strategic and Theater Sealift program manager with the Program Executive Office. Burlington will begin Acceptance Trials in late July, during which the Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey will inspect and evaluate the ship to certify its readiness for delivery. (Source: Navy News Service 07/06/18)