Austal USA has won a $114 million contract for the Navy’s new T-AGOS(X) ocean surveillance ship, according to a Thursday announcement from the Defense Department.
The award is for the detailed design of the first surveillance ship, which the Navy bought in Fiscal Year 2022.
“The contract includes options for detail design and construction of up to seven T-AGOS 25 class ships, special studies, engineering and industrial, provisional items orders, post-delivery mission system installation period, and data rights buy-out,” the announcement reads.
The contract is worth up to $3.2 billion. Two shipyards bid for the work.
“Auxiliary General Ocean Surveillance (T-AGOS) ships gather underwater acoustical data to support the mission of the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System (IUSS) by providing a ship platform capable of theater anti-submarine acoustic passive and active surveillance,” reads the Fiscal Year 2024 budget documents. “T-AGOS ships are operated by Military Sealift Command to support the anti-submarine warfare mission of the commanders of the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets.”
Meanwhile, the Navy issued a $526 million contract modification to Fincantieri Marinette Marine for the fourth Constellation-class frigate, FFG-65, according to the Thursday contract announcements.
The award for the detail design and construction of the fourth guided-missile frigate comes 11 months after the Navy issued Fincantieri a modification for the third frigate, Chesapeake (FFG-64). The service has not yet announced a name for the fourth frigate.
Fincantieri builds the Connie frigates, which are based on the FREMM multi-mission design first used by the Italian and French navies, at its shipyard in Marinette, Wis.
Marinette began fabrication on the lead ship in the class, the future USS Constellation (FFG-62), at the end of August 2022.
