Navy Shipbuilder Calls Littoral Combat Ship ‘the Sexiest Thing’ It Has Produced
The Littoral Combat Ship has had its full share of issues, but Austal Ltd. founder John Rothwell still thinks the Independence Class is βthe sexiest thing weβve done.β
The comment came as Rothwell last week visited the Austal USA shipyard in Mobile with new company chairman Richard Spencer. The two answered a variety of serious questions, and one very silly one: If they each could have one Austal vessel as their personal yacht, what would it be?
Rothwell initially demurred. Austal Ltd. actually built yachts in the early 2000s before shifting into commercial and military work. βI have been at the wheel of one of our yachts and then realized that yacht building wasnβt real good for us,β he said. βI did have a yacht for a period of time. Iβm not now a yacht-type person. I think itβs a different world and itβs not one that I enjoy any longer.β
βIβm a keen scuba diver and I can do that, I can go out in a rigid inflatable, you know,β he said. βIβve still got a boat at home but itβs not what weβd call a yacht. Itβs maybe 55 feet or something or other.β
But if he could pick anything from the Austal catalog to be his new superyacht, what would it be?
βSo, the LCS is by far the sexiest thing weβve done,β he said.
For him, it seems, the angular aluminum waterjet-driven trimaran remains a symbol of how far his company has come. And thereβs a specific moment attached to that: In July 2023 the U.S. Navy commissioned LCS 30 as the USS Canberra at a ceremony in Sydney, Australia. It was the first U.S. Navy vessel in history to be commissioned outside the United States.
βFor me personally to see an LCS that was initially designed from one of our commercial ferries, and developed into a military vessel with U.S. Navy money, to see one sailing through the Heads of Sydney [the headlands at the entrance of Sydneyβs harbor) was a big moment for me,β he said. βIt was named USS Canberra and it was escorted in by HMAS Canberra. It was just, for me, it was really almost the ultimate.β
Spencerβs fantasy yacht pick was a smidge more practical: He went with the Expeditionary Fast Transport (EPF), seeing in its multipurpose catamaran design some kinship to a type of vessel popular on American waterways.
βGrowing up on a lake, we had pontoon boats,β said Spencer. βSo I have to go with the EPF. Itβs just a huge party boat.β
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