Page 45: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2024)

US NAVY

The Navy’s newest class of ocean-going tugs are under con- The T-ATS will be 260 feet long and displace 5,100 tons. struction at two yards on the Gulf Coast. The ships have a signi? cant amount of open deck space to in-

Ten ships of the Navajo-class are being built at Bollinger of stall containers or equipment to support a variety of missions.

Houma, La., and Austal USA of Mobile, Ala. They are desig- Like their predecessors, the T-ATS are named for native nated as towing, salvage and rescue ships (T-ATS), and will be American nations or signi? cant native American leaders.

operated with civilian crews by the Military Sealift Command According to a U.S. Navy Fact File, Bollinger Houma Ship- (MSC). They will serve as replacements for the Safeguard- yard is building the future USNS Navajo (T-ATS 6), Cherokee class of rescue and salvage ships (T-ARSs) and the Powhatan Nation (T-ATS 7), Saginaw Ojibwe Anishinabek (T-ATS 8), class of ocean-going tugs. USNS Lenni Lenape (T-ATS 9) and USNS Muscogee Creek

Navy of? cials said that the new class of tugs “provide Nation (T-ATS 10). Bollinger laid the keel for Muscogee ocean-going tug, salvage, and rescue capabilities to support Creek Nation on March 21, 2024. Cherokee Nation was chris-

U.S. ? eet operations and will be a multi-mission common hull tened at Houma on June 13, 2024.

platform capable of towing heavy ships.” Austal USA was awarded a follow-on Detail Design and

According to the Bollinger Shipyard website, “The Navajo- Construction contract for the construction of T-ATS 11 class is a new series of towing, salvage and rescue ships (T- through T-ATS 15. Austal USA has begun construction of

ATS) being constructed for the U.S. Navy. The Navajo-class USNS Billy Frank Jr (T-ATS 11), USNS Solomon Atkinson is a multi-mission common hull platform that will be deployed (T-ATS 12), and USNS James D. Fairbanks (T-ATS 13), and is to support a range of missions such as towing, rescue, sal- under contract for the detail design and construction of USNS vage, humanitarian assistance, oil spill response and wide-area Narragansett (T-ATS 14). Austal USA laid the keel for USNS search and surveillance operations using unmanned underwa- Billy Frank Jr. on Nov. 14, 2023. T-ATS 15 is on order but its ter vehicles (UUV) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).” name has not yet been announced.

Future USNS Cherokee

Nation (T-ATS-7) Navajo- class towing, salvage and rescue ship was christened at Houma, Louisiana on

June 8, 2024.

Source: Bollinger Shipyards www.marinelink.com 45

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