Austal delivers Expeditionary Fast Transport to Navy

USNS City of Bismarck (EPF 9)

DECEMBER 22, 2017— The U.S. Navy took delivery of the Expeditionary Fast Transport vessel USNS City of Bismarck (EPF 9), following the finalization of documents on board the ship in Mobile, AL. 

Built by Austal USA, USNS City of Bismarck (EPF 9) is the second ship in the EFP program delivered by the Mobile shipyard in 2017. Earlier this year, the Navy took delivery of USNS Yuma (EPF 8).

The Expeditionary Fast Transport (EPF), formerly named the Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV), is a shallow draft, all-aluminum, commercial-based catamaran capable of intra theater personnel and cargo lift, providing combatant commanders high-speed sealift mobility, with inherent cargo handling capability and agility to achieve positional advantage over operational distances.

The waterjet-propelled 338 ft City of Bismarck is capable of transporting 600 tons of cargo over 1,200 nautical miles at an average speed of 35 knots. The ship’s flight deck can also support flight operations for a wide variety of manned and unmanned aircraft, including a CH-53 Super Stallion.

“We take great pride in sending another EPF to join the MSC fleet thanks to the commitment of our talented shipbuilding team,” says  Austal USA President Craig Perciavalle. “It’s exciting to see how our U.S. Navy is combining this great platform with the capabilities of the Littoral Combat Ship platform and expanding their mission sets to support a wide variety of operational needs around the globe – most recently when LCS 4 and EPF 3, 4 and 6 worked together to give the Navy access to over a thousand port locations in the littoral regions of South and Southeast Asia.”

Today’s delivery marks the ninth EPF ship delivered to the Navy as part of a contract for 12 ships worth over $1.9 billion.

Upon delivery of USNS City of Bismarck, three additional Spearhead-class EPFs are under construction at Austal. Burlington (EPF 10) is being erected in final assembly and modules for Puerto Rico (EPF 11) and EPF 12 are under construction in Austal’s module manufacturing facility.

In addition to the EPF program, Austal is also under contract to build Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) for the U.S. Navy. Six LCS have been delivered while an additional seven are in various stages of construction.