New tonnage and additional jobs became visible on the horizon May 30 for the SIU Government Services Division when General Dynamics NASSCO held a keel-laying ceremony for the sixth ship in the U.S. Navy’s T-AKE program.A shipbuilding tradition, a keel-laying ceremony represents a signpost in the birth of a new ship—the start of its full-scale production. In recognition of that milestone, Darlene Costello, event honoree, welded her initials into the keel. Costello is the deputy director for Naval Warfare in the office of under secretary of defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. This new platform, according to a May 29 announcement by the Navy, will be named USNS Amelia Earhart, in honor of the first woman to fly solo, non-stop across the Atlantic and (years later) Pacific oceans.
The Amelia Earhart is scheduled to be delivered to the Navy’s Military Sealift Command (MSC) in the fall of 2008 at which point it will be crewed by SIU CIVMARS. The ship will be 689 feet long and displace about 41,000 metric tons when fully loaded. The Amelia Earhart’s primary mission will be to deliver food, ammunition, fuel and other provisions to combat ships at sea. Like the other ships in the T-AKE class, it will have a sailing speed of 20 knots.
In addition to conducting the May 30 keel laying ceremony for the USNS Amelia Earhart, NASSCO on the same day announced the start of construction on the seventh dry cargo-ammunition ship in the U.S. Navy’s T-AKE program. The ship is scheduled to be delivered to the Navy in the first quarter of 2009.
Since June 2006, the USNS Lewis and Clark (T-AKE 1) and USNS Sacagawea (T-AKE 2) have been delivered to MSC and crewed up by CIVMARS. The third ship of the class, USNS Alan Shepard, and the recently-launched USNS Richard E. Byrd will also be delivered to the Navy by the end of 2007. The fifth T-AKE vessel, the USNS Robert Peary, is slated for delivery in 2008.
The T-AKE class is expected to include 11 ships for the Military Sealift Command fleet.
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