VT Halter Marine awarded Phase I contract for next gen NOAA ship

Shipbuilder VT Halter Marine, Inc. reports that it has been selected for Phase 1 Preliminary/Contract design for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) AGOR Variant (NAV).

Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) made the announcement of the Phase I awards for the firm-fixed-price groups for the shallow coastal, continental shelf, and worldwide ocean survey and data collection ships .

The initial Phase I contract award for VT Halter Marine is $1.465 million. If successful with detailed design, and best value in Phase II, the value could amount to an additional estimated $150 million.

For the NAV program, VT Halter Marine has assembled partners with strong past performance records in the specific capability and technology segments relevant to the program’s unique requirements and the NOAA science mission sets.

VT Halter Marine has teamed with naval architectural and marine engineering firm Gibbs & Cox, Inc. to provide NAVSEA and NOAA with a design approach that will deliver efficient and multi-mission effective NOAA AGOR Variant (NAV) ships.

Gibbs & Cox, has nearly nine decades of designing vessels in the U.S. with particular experience in high-density ship designs with stringent noise and performance requirements. Together, the design team brings together a group of companies with over 160 years of combined experience in designing. The team’s parent design is the optimal starting point for developing a solution to accomplish the NOAA AGOR Variant’s multi-mission requirements specification.

“The VT Halter Marine Team is honored to be selected for the opportunity to develop the contract design for NOAA’s Next Generation of Ocean Research Vessel. For this design we are leading a team of experts in the mission systems required for this platform and we have every confidence that our team will produce the platform to most effectively implement NOAA’s current mission and missions of the future.” said Ronald Baczkowski, Chief Executive Officer of VT Halter Marine.”