USNS Fall River (JHSV 4) hit the water successfully at Austal USA on January 16, 2014.
The high-speed catamaran, which is part of a 10-ship program worth over USD 1.6 billion, was recently christened at Austal shipyard.
The launching was a multi-step process. The ship was first tranferred from the Assembly Bay 3 onto a deck barge bound for BAE Systems Southeast Shipyard. From there it was moved to BAE System’s dry dock Alabama and finally returned to Austal’s facility for final outfitting.
Austal USA President, Carig Perciavalle, said that it is really amazing how easy the team makes a multi-step process of transferring the ship to BAE Systems and Austal.
USNS Fall River is the fourth US Navy’s Joint High Speed Vessel joining USNS Milinocket, Coronado and Jackson.
[mappress] Naval Today Staff, January 17, 2014; Image: Austal