Bollinger lays keel for US Navy’s ninth Navajo-class T-ATS

October 20, 2025, by Fatima Bahtić

Bollinger Shipyards has laid the keel for the future USNS Lenni Lenape, the US Navy’s ninth Navajo-class towing, salvage, and rescue ship (T-ATS).

As disclosed, the vessel, the sixth T-ATS vessel being constructed by Bollinger since acquiring the program in April of 2021, is named to honor the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania, and it is the first naval vessel to carry the name of the Lenni Lenape tribe.

The Navajo-class is a new series of towing, salvage, and rescue ships (T-ATS) being constructed for the US Navy. The class is a multi-mission common hull platform that will be deployed to support a range of missions such as towing, rescue, salvage, humanitarian assistance, oil spill response and wide-area search and surveillance operations using unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).

The vessels will replace the existing Powhatan-class T-ATF fleet ocean tugs and Safeguard-class T-ARS rescue and salvage ships in service with the US Military Sealift Command.

“Bollinger is grateful for the Navy’s continued confidence in our team to build the Navajo-class Towing, Salvage and Rescue Ships,” said Ben Bordelon, President and CEO of Bollinger Shipyards.

“The keel laying of the future USNS Lenni Lenape marks another significant milestone in our partnership, and we are honored to support the Navy’s fleet modernization efforts through the T-ATS program.”

In addition to T-ATS 9, Bollinger is constructing USNS Navajo (T-ATS 6), USNS Cherokee Nation (T-ATS 7), USNS Saginaw Ojibwe Anishinabek (T-ATS 8), and USNS Muscogee Creek Nation (T-ATS 10).