Bollinger Shipyards has laid the keel of the US Navy’s 10th Navajo-class vessel, the USNS Muscogee Creek Nation (T-ATS 10), in Louisiana.
The T-ATS 10 is a towing, salvage, and rescue ship being developed to replace the Safeguard-class rescue and salvage platforms and Powhatan-class tug boats that have been operational since the early 1980s.
During the ceremony, the T-ATS 10’s keel was authenticated by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s Attorney General Geri Wisner and Principal Chief David Hill. Other members of the community were also present.
Through the process of attaching the ship’s symbolic backbone, the navy formally marked the start of the system’s life and the assembly of its modular components.
“Today’s ceremony is a major milestone in the construction of the future USNS Muscogee Creek Nation, the fifth of five T-ATS ships to be built by Bollinger,” Bollinger Shipyards President and CEO Ben Bordelon stated.
“The T-ATS program is an important part of our expanding portfolio and relationship with the Navy as we work to support critical fleet modernization efforts.”
Navajo Vessels
The Navajo fleet combines all capabilities found in its predecessors to boost support for the US Navy’s evolving requirements.
Each platform under the class measures 80 meters (263 feet) and has a beam of 18 meters (60 feet).
It is powered by two Wartsila 6,300 horsepower diesel engines for up to 15.1 knots (28 kilometers/17 miles per hour) of speed and up to 8,170 nautical miles (15,100 kilometers/9,400 miles) of range.
The Navajo has the capacity for up to 65 sailors and a 6,000-square-foot (560-square-meter) deck space for embarked vehicles.
In 2017, the US Department of Defense ordered 10 vessels for the Navajo program.
Bollinger is in charge of manufacturing the future USNS Navajo (T-ATS 6), USNS Cherokee Nation (T-ATS 7), USNS Saginaw Ojibwe Anishinabek (T-ATS 8), and USNS Lenni Lenape (T-ATS 9), in addition to the T-ATS 10.
The remaining T-ATS 11-15 are under contract at Austal USA.