Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer visited Alabama Friday to serve as the sponsor for the 14th and final U.S. Navy Expeditionary Fast Transport vessel that will be built at Mobile’s shipyard and delivered within the next 36 months.
It was a visit without any comments about the tense presidential campaign in a deep red state expected to overwhelmingly back Republican former President Donald Trump.
Whitmer, co-chair of Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, offered only praise toward Austal USA, Alabama and the workforce that will build a Navy ship named after the Michigan capital city, and her hometown of Lansing.
She took no questions from the local media, opting to spend a brief time taking pictures and meeting with the Austal USA workers who watched the keel laying ceremony from inside an Austal plant near downtown Mobile.
“Let’s continue to work together and deliver for this beautiful county we are so fortunate to call home,” Whitmer said moments before she joined veteran Austal welder Emija Coleman to etch her name onto the future USNS Lansing (EPF-16). It was part of a keel laying ceremony that is common before the construction of a Navy ship at the Australian-based Austal plant that first opened in across the Mobile River from downtown Mobile in 1999.
“Your work is critical especially concerning global national security threats we face on water ways and oceans around the world,” Whitmer said. “For over a century, Alabamians have churned out watercraft right here to shore up our national defense.”
She added, “There is one thing Alabamians and Michiganders have in common. We love to make stuff that continues to make the world move forward.”
M3 Initiative
Whitmer’s visit to Mobile came more than a month after U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro announced the naming of the Navy ship after Lansing. It also comes after the Biden Administration announced the Michigan Maritime Manufacturing (M3) Initiative that includes $50 million to train and recruit a workforce in Michigan interested in manufacturing military submarines.
The M3 Initiative comes amid a labor shortage in the U.S. Navy and that has led to a backlog in ship production.
Navy shipbuilding is in “a terrible state” — the worst in a quarter century, according to Eric Labs, a longtime naval analyst at the Congressional Budget Office, in an Associated Press story posted recently in the Navy Times.
Austal USA held a keel laying ceremony for the future USNS Lansing (EPF-16) on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, at the company’s shipyard in Mobile, Ala. Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer joined U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro and others for the ceremony of the final Flight II Expeditionary Fast Transport ship that will be constructed at Austal USA. The vessel is expected to be built and ready for use within 36 months.John Sharp
Del Toro, in Mobile, praised Michigan’s workforce and Austal’s ability to build ships.
“Michigan has a world-class skilled world-class skilled workforce and is a leader in developing the techno-industrial workforce we need to build and assemble the ships, munitions, parts and pieces our Navy, Marine Corps, and indeed our nation need to promote peace around the world,” Del Toro said. “Austal, building this ship, represents another key line of effort under our new, national approach to Maritime Statecraft – a foreign shipbuilder establishing a U.S. subsidiary, investing in America, and partnering with us to build American ships.”
The ship will be under construction for the next three years, when it will be officially christened and placed into active service.
EFP-16 is the final of the high-speed, shallow draft vessels to be built in Mobile. The first of the ships built in the EFP program was in 2010.
“The American taxpayer is having a great return on these ships,” said Larry Ryder, vice-president of business development and external affairs with Austal. “There are 14 delivered to date. They are doing a wide range of missions. They are extremely flexible. They have a large capacity to move people and can move equipment and supplies.”
The last three of the EFP vessels have “enhanced medical capabilities,” Ryder said, which include a full medical platform that includes an ICU ward, lab services, X-rays and more.
Full circle
U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl, R-Mobile, speaks during an Austal USA keel laying ceremony for the future USNS Lansing (EPF-16) on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, at the company’s shipyard in Mobile, Ala. Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer joined U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro and others for the ceremony of the final Flight II Expeditionary Fast Transport ship that will be constructed at Austal USA. The vessel is expected to be built and ready for use within 36 months.John Sharp
The keel laying ceremony was also a bittersweet moment for U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl, R-Mobile, who will leave Congress in January after losing the Alabama Republican Congressional District 1 primary to U.S. Rep. Barry Moore of Enterprise. Moore, who represents the 2nd district, sought the 1st district seat following a congressional redistricting.
Carl said the funding for the USNS Lansing was included in his first defense appropriations package after he was sworn into office in early 2021.
“It’s kind of a closing and a coming full circle and seeing some of my efforts come together,” Carl said.
Carl offered praised to Del Toro and the relationship he developed with the Navy secretary during his time in office. He also said that Whitmer’s appearance was strictly meant to be about “national defense,” and not politics.
“We have to put our labels down and focus on national defense,” Carl said. “That’s what Austal is about. They have Republicans and Democrats and Independents building these (ships). We want to keep the pride of what we’re building here. You don’t build that from being a party. You build it from being a nation.”
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Publish date : 2024-09-06 12:50:00
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