AUSTAL HOSTS CHRISTENING FOR LCS 20

MEDIA RELEASE
7 MAY, 2018

Austal (ASX: ASB) today announced the christening of the Independence Class Littoral Combat Ship 20 (LCS 20), the future USS Cincinnati. The ceremony was held in Austal’s state-of-the-art Mobile ship manufacturing facility. The USS Cincinnati will be the tenth of 15 Independence-variant LCSs Austal USA has under contract with the U.S. Navy at a combined value of over $4.5 billion.

The Independence-variant LCS is a high-speed, agile, shallow draft, focused-mission surface combatant designed to conduct Surface Warfare, Anti-Submarine Warfare, and Mine Countermeasures missions in the littoral region. With its open architecture design, the LCS can support modular weapons, sensor systems and a variety of manned and unmanned vehicles to capture and sustain littoral maritime supremacy.

“We’re very proud of what Austal USA has achieved in the LCS Program. The future USS Cincinnati will set another benchmark for cost, schedule, quality and capability for the LCS program thanks to the dedicated work of our team” Austal CEO, David Singleton said.

“Austal continues to focus on providing the most cost-effective and capable small surface combatants in the world to the US Navy. We stand ready with the capacity to efficiently assist with the build to achieve the growth plan of a 355-ship fleet” he said.

In 2018 Austal has delivered two LCSs to the Navy, with another five under construction. LCS 18 is preparing for sea trials as LCS 20, 22, 24 and LCS 26 are following close behind. Additionally, Austal has two more LCSs in a pre-construction phase, LCS 28 and LCS 30 (USS Canberra).

In addition to being in full rate production for the LCS program, Austal is also the Navy’s prime contractor for the Expeditionary Fast Transport (EPF) program. Austal has delivered nine EPF vessels, while an additional three are in various stages of construction.

Austal Media Contact:

Contact:           Gemma Whiting - Government Relations Manager

Mobile:             +61 (0)408 982 727

Email:               gemma.whiting@austal.com

Website:           www.austal.com

About Austal

Austal is an Australian shipbuilder and global defence prime contractor which designs constructs and sustains some of the world’s most advanced commercial and defence vessels.

Austal successfully balances commercial and defence projects and celebrates 30 years of success in 2018.  Austal has designed, constructed and delivered more than 300 commercial and defence vessels for more than 100 operators in 54 countries worldwide.

Austal is Australia’s largest defence exporter and the only ASX-listed shipbuilder. Austal has industry leading shipyards in Australia, the United States of America and Philippines and service centres worldwide.

Austal delivers iconic monohull, catamaran and trimaran commercial vessel platforms – including the world’s largest trimaran ferry and multiple defence programs such as the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) and Expeditionary Fast Transport (EPF) for the United States Navy. Austal has grown to become the world’s largest aluminium shipbuilder.