Austal USA Christens Future USNS Billy Frank Jr. (T-ATS 11)
MOBILE, Ala. – Austal USA held a christening ceremony today for the company’s first steel ship, future USNS Billy Frank Jr., the Navy’s sixth Towing, Salvage and Rescue Ship (T-ATS 11), at the company’s Mobile, Ala. ship manufacturing facility. Ship sponsor Peggen Frank christened the ship by breaking a champagne bottle over the bow in front of hundreds of guests, including: Dr. Brett Seidle, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition (acting); Rear Admiral Thomas Anderson, USN, Program Executive Officer Ships; Rear Admiral Mark Haigis, USN, Deputy Commander, Military Sealift Command; and ship namesake representative the Honorable William Frank III (son of Billy Frank, Jr.)
“Austal USA is excited to christen our first steel ship today,” said Dave Growden, vice president of surface programs. “It’s an honor to participate in this ceremony alongside the ship sponsor, Ms. Frank, and the Native American tribes represented here today. I am proud to represent our talented workforce in celebrating this milestone accomplishment and we look forward to completing T-ATS 11 and delivering her to the Fleet.”
Peggen Frank, ship sponsor, is inspired by her late father-in-law Billy Frank Jr.’s vision of protecting the water and the river. She is the Executive Director of Salmon Defense, a nonprofit that organizes education and advocacy for salmon and salmon habitat, and represents several Tribes as a Washington State contract lobbyist. Frank is an enrolled member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe located on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, where she was born and raised. Frank, an Oglala Lakota, moved to the Nisqually watershed in the early 2000s to be with her husband, Nisqually Tribal Chair Willie Frank III.
The ship’s namesake, Billy Frank, Jr., was a member of the Nisqually Indian Tribe and a Korean War veteran where he served in the U.S. Marine Corps. Frank, from the state of Washington, later became an activist who fought for justice and environmental preservation. During his distinguished career, Billy Frank, Jr. served as chair of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission for almost three decades and was honored with numerous awards including the Common Cause Award for Human Rights Efforts, the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism, the American Indian Distinguished Service Award, the 2006 Wallace Stegner Award, and the Washington State Environmental Excellence Award. He was posthumously named a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2015.
T-ATS 11 will provide ocean-going towing, salvage and rescue capabilities to support fleet operations. T-ATS will be a multi-mission common hull platform capable of towing U.S. Navy ships and will have 6,000 square feet of deck space for embarked systems. The large, unobstructed deck allows for the embarkation of a variety of stand-alone and interchangeable systems. The T-ATS platform will combine the capabilities of the retiring Rescue and Salvage Ship (T-ARS 50) and Fleet Ocean Tug (T-ATF 166) platforms. T-ATS will be able to support current missions including towing, salvage, rescue, oil spill response, humanitarian assistance, and wide-area search and surveillance. The platform also enables future rapid capability initiatives such as supporting modular payloads with hotel services and appropriate interfaces.
The future USNS Billy Frank Jr. is one of three T-ATS vessels under construction at Austal USA with two more under contract.
