Austal Ships

Austal Limited

Type	Public limited company
Traded as	ASX: ASB
Industry	Defence, Shipbuilding
Founded	1988; 29 years ago (1988)
Headquarters	Henderson, Cockburn, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Area served	worldwide
Key people	David Singleton (CEO)
Products	Warships, Merchant vessels, Platform supply vessels
Number of employees	5200
Subsidiaries	Austal USA Austal Philippines
Website	www.austal.com

Austal is an Australian-based global ship building company and defence prime contractor that specialises in the design, construction and support of defence and commercial vessels. Austal's product range includes naval vessels, high speed passenger and vehicle ferries and specialist utility vessels including offshore windfarm and crew transfer vessels.

Austal has three major ship building facilities. Defence vessels are designed and constructed in Henderson, Western Australia and Mobile, Alabama in the United States of America and commercial vessels are constructed in Balamban, Cebu in the Philippines. Vessel support is provided through service centres located in Australia, the United States of America and Oman in the Middle East. Corporate headquarters is co-located at the Australian ship building facility in Henderson, Western Australia.

Since 1988, Austal has designed and constructed over 250 vessels for navies, defence forces and commercial fleet operators around the world, including the Royal Australian Navy and the United States Navy. Major contracts currently include the Independence class littoral combat ship and Joint High Speed Vessel for the United States Navy, the Cape-class patrol boat for the Australian Border Force and the High Speed Support Vessel for the Royal Navy of Oman.

In October 2005, Austal/General Dynamics was awarded a contract to build the first unit from its design for a Littoral Combat Ship. The keel of the future USS Independence was laid on 19 January 2006 at Austal USA's yard in Mobile, Alabama, and the naming ceremony was held on 4 October 2008. It is now operating with the fleet at its current location in Norfolk, Virginia.