Bollinger gets $95M boost for U.S. Navy Navajo-class rescue ships

The U.S. Navy awarded Bollinger Shipyards Lockport LLC a $95 million contract modification to support the ongoing construction and delivery of Navajo-class Towing, Salvage, and Rescue Ships, the Department of War announced.

The work covers pre- and post-delivery requirements including industrial services, shipyard support, claims settlement, and extended warranties. It is split between Bollinger’s facility in Houma, Louisiana, handling 12 percent of the work, and Pascagoula, Mississippi, handling the remaining 88 percent, with completion expected by January 2030.

The funding comes directly from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the sweeping domestic investment legislation signed into law earlier this year, which designated a portion of its defense appropriations to revitalizing American shipbuilding capacity. The contract announcement explicitly cited that linkage, stating it “directly supports the national effort to revitalize and rebuild American shipbuilding.” The timing and funding source are deliberate: the U.S. Navy has been pressing to accelerate Navajo-class production as the aging vessels the new ships are replacing continue to rack up operating hours.

The Navajo class exists to replace two older ship types that have been in Military Sealift Command service for decades. The Safeguard-class rescue and salvage ships, in commission since the mid-1980s, and the Powhatan-class fleet ocean tugs, both operate on hulls that are well past their original design life. The Navajo-class T-ATS, a towing, salvage, and rescue ship designation, consolidates both missions into a single common hull, displacing 5,110 long tons, stretching 263 feet, and cruising at 15 knots with a range of 8,170 nautical miles. Beyond towing and salvage, the class is designed as a multi-mission platform capable of supporting submarine rescue operations, humanitarian assistance, oil spill response, and wide-area search and surveillance using unmanned underwater and aerial vehicles. That last capability reflects how the Navy intends to use these ships not just as recovery assets but as flexible forward-presence platforms in the regions where Military Sealift Command operates.

Bollinger Shipyards inherited the Navajo program under circumstances that were not straightforward. Gulf Island Fabrication won the original construction contract in March 2018 for $63.5 million covering the lead ship and options for up to seven additional hulls. After the program ran into delays and cost pressures, Gulf Island sold both the contract and the shipyard to Bollinger in April 2021. Bollinger, headquartered in Lockport, Louisiana, with multiple Gulf Coast facilities, took over an active shipbuilding program mid-stream and has been managing construction since. The lead ship, USNS Navajo, was christened at Bollinger’s Houma facility in August 2023 and is now completed. The second ship, Cherokee Nation, was launched in June 2024 and has also been completed. Six more hulls across both Bollinger and Austal USA facilities are currently under construction or in fitting-out, reflecting the program’s expansion beyond the original builder.

Each ship in the class carries the name of a Native American nation or prominent Native American figure. The USNS Navajo honors the Navajo Nation; Cherokee Nation honors the Cherokee Nation; the ships further down the construction list carry names including Saginaw Ojibwe Anishinabek, Lenni Lenape, Muscogee Creek Nation, Billy Frank Jr., and Solomon Atkinson. Billy Frank Jr., named for the late Nisqually tribal leader and fishing rights activist, was launched at Austal USA in June 2025. That naming convention is not ceremonial padding. When the Navy christened the lead ship, Jocelyn Billy, Miss Navajo Nation 2006 and a Navajo Nation member, served as the ship’s sponsor and broke the traditional bottle across the bow, connecting the vessel’s commissioning directly to the community whose name it carries.