Austal-Navy working on med ships

WASHINGTON- The Navy and Alabama-based Austal USA shipyard have begun initial work on a new class of smaller and more agile medical ships to fit with sea-service’s vision of distributed operations, according to Austal exec Larry Ryder. The vessel, which Austal calls an Expeditionary Medical Ship (EMS), is envisioned to be about a 120-meter aluminum catamaran based on the Navy’s expeditionary fast transport vessels, he says. It’s going to have all the capabilities of a current hospital ship, except for capacity. Austal USA, based in Mobile, Ala., has been designing such a ship internally for a few years, but the recently signed FY 2022 defense spending bill includes funding for the Navy to begin working with Austal to develop requirements. If the Navy follows through with the EMS, it would potentially replace the two 1,000-bed hospital ships Comfort and Mercy that are stationed on the East and West coasts. (Source: Breaking Defense 04/07/22) Austal envisions smaller, more agile hospital ships to replace Navy legends - Breaking Defense