Austal
Australian shipbuilder with a US yard in Mobile, Alabama
Austal built the Independence-class Littoral Combat Ships for the US Navy after a 2010 order split with Lockheed Martin. That split is the precedent for the Navy's September 2026 award of 30 medium robot boats across three yards.
Last refreshed: 7 October 2026
Timeline for Austal
Mentioned in: US Navy buys 30 robot boats from 3 yards
Autonomous Systems: Land & SeaBackground
Austal is an Australian shipbuilder founded in Perth by John Rothwell on 8 August 1988 and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange since 1998. It is headquartered at Henderson, Western Australia, with yards in Mobile, Alabama, and Balamban in the Philippines.
For the US Navy it designed and built the Independence-class Littoral Combat Ships and the Spearhead-class Expeditionary Fast Transports. In 2010 the Navy divided its first Littoral Combat Ship order between Lockheed Martin and Austal, and costs then grew. The Mobile yard makes Austal a foreign-owned builder of US Navy hulls.
That record is the reference point whenever the Navy spreads a new class across several yards. On 29 September 2026 it ordered 30 medium uncrewed surface vessels ten each from HII, Saronic Technologies and Galliano Marine Services; the first boats are due by the close of fiscal 2027.