US NAVY EXTENDS AUSTAL HIGH SPEED CATAMARAN CHARTER

摘要

The charter of the Austal high speed vessel 'WestPac Express' has been extended for a further six months by the United States Navy's Military Sealift Command. The modification to the charter will see the ship continue to support the operations of the United States Marine Corps' Third Marine Expeditionary Force through to February 2014. The contract extension comes almost exactly 12 years after Austal announced it had signed a "world first" contract to charter the 101 metre high speed catamaran to the US military for the rapid deployment of Marines and their equipment in the Western Pacific. Since that date the ship has achieved technical availability levels exceeding 99%.