MS marine firm's T-AGOS contract

PASCAGOULA, Miss. - Halter Marine Inc., a company of ST Engineering North America, has been awarded a $981,000 contract for industrial studies of auxiliary general ocean surveillance ship (T-AGOS(X)) program. T-AGOS class of vessels will ultimately replace the existing fleet of four T-AGOS 19 and one T-AGOS 23 small waterplane area twin hull (SWATH) ships. The 12-month contract is to perform trade-off studies and analyses of the Navy design. Halter Marine has teamed with Gibbs & Cox as the ship designer. Gibbs & Cox has a Gulf Coast operation in New Orleans. T-AGOS has a SWATH style design and is built to tow a surveillance towed array sensor system. The catamaran design prevents it from rolling in heavy seas. T-AGOS will be designed for a 30-year service life. VT Halter Marine, the marine operations of ST Engineering North America, is based in Pascagoula, Miss., and designs and constructs medium-sized ships in the U.S. (Source: VT Halter Marine 07/20/20)