Written by
Nick Blenkey
Austal Restricted CEO Paddy Gregg and Birdon CEO Jamie Bruce at Austal USA’s headquarters in Cellular, Alabama [Photo: Austal]
Two Australian shipbuilders with vital U.S. presences selected Cellular, Ala., to announce right this moment that they’re teaming up for an Australian Military touchdown craft challenge. The 2 corporations, Austal Ships Pty Restricted (Austal) and Birdon Pty Restricted (Birdon) reported that they’ve signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collectively develop protection shipbuilding functionality in Western Australia to ship the Australian Division of Defence Touchdown Craft-Medium (“LC-M”) Challenge.
The formation of the MoU began in late November when Australia’s Minister for Defence Trade, Pat Conroy, introduced a Heads of Settlement (“HoA”) to ascertain a Strategic Shipbuilding Settlement between Austal and the Commonwealth, and named Austal as the popular vessel constructor. Birdon was chosen by the Commonwealth as the popular designer for the LC-M Australian Military touchdown craft challenge,
Underneath the MoU, Austal and Birdon have agreed to work with one another to collectively develop a costed proposal for the LC-M Challenge, together with exploring a variety of different potential protection shipbuilding alternatives.
“Austal has an excellent observe report of working successfully with third-party vessel designers and we stay up for working with Birdon to develop the MoU right into a extra substantive partnership in order that we will ship a succesful and cost-effective LC-M program for the Military,” stated Austal CEO Paddy Gregg.
Birdon CEO Jamie Bruce stated the MoU was a sign of the intent of each corporations to kind a collaborative relationship for the design and construct of LC-Ms.
“We’re happy that our LC-M design, which exceeds necessities and can ship past some other vessel at present in-service or marketed globally, was the design most well-liked by the Commonwealth. We stay up for teaming with Austal to deliver the design to life,” Bruce stated.
Neither occasion talked about why they occurred to be in Cellular for the signing,
