A graphic of Austal USA’s expeditionary medical ship. (Courtesy of Austal USA)

EURONAVAL 2024 — Austal USA is eyeing European markets for its relatively new medical ship that is being designed and produced for the US Navy, as the company looks to beef up future production to avoid fallow periods at its facilities.

“We’re interested in expanding our market — three to four years out — we want to be looking at a new set of programs,” Larry Ryder, a company executive, told Breaking Defense here at the Euronaval exposition. “It’s a piece of the market we haven’t touched yet. We’ve come close on a couple of international [foreign military sales] deals, but we want to kind of gage the market over here.”

Austal is slated to build three Bethesda-class Expeditionary Medical Ships for the US Navy, a specialized platform derived from the expeditionary fast transports and designed to provide a more mobile and agile version of the iconic hospital ships Comfort and Mercy.

The interest to put the platform forward in markets abroad stems from the American shipyard’s recent history. As Breaking Defense reported, Austal’s Mobile, Ala.,-based yard was facing numerous programmatic closures and severe layoffs at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic as several US Navy programs were slated to close and no new work was on the horizon.

Through a combination of facility expansion and contract wins, the shipyard, a staple builder for the US Navy, has come out of that period with a more diverse portfolio of programs than it held a few years ago. But, Ryder acknowledged, it also acted as a warning sign for the need to seek out new customers.

“We’ve got to be looking three, four years out, and if we sit and wait till we need work, it’s too late,” he added.

Europe is relatively fresh ground for Austal as a whole. While the Expeditionary Medical Ship is built by Austal USA, its parent company, Austal, based in Australia, is largely focused on its domestic market and Asia, especially as it pertains to defense.