Wednesday, January 29, 2025

 

Fourth U.S. Training Ship Floated at Hanwha Philly Shipyard

Lone Star State training ship
Lone Star State was moved from the dry dock to start her outfitting stage (Texas A&M Maritime Academy)

Published Jan 27, 2025 4:35 PM by The Maritime Executive

 


MARAD’s program to build the first modern training ships for the U.S. merchant marine marked another milestone with the floating of the fourth vessel of the class. The future Lone Star State which has been assigned to Texas A&M Maritime College took to the water for the first time on Friday, January 24, and was towed to the outfitting berth.

“This is an exciting milestone because the vessel moves from production on land to water, and it is one of the last major moves before heading out for sea trials,” said Hanwha Philly Shipyard posting a video of the repositioning. She was towed to a lay-berth where she will remain for the next two weeks while the dry dock is cleaned and reset. NSMV IV will then move to dry dock number five at Hanhwa Philly Shipyard for outfitting. According to the yard, much of the interior work will be done over the next few months.

 

Lone Star State afloat for the first time (Texas A&M Maritime Academy)

 

The future Lone Star State joins NSMV III, the future State of Maine, which is entering the final stages of her outfitting. She is due to be delivered to Maine Maritime earlier in 2025 and the Lone Star State is tentatively scheduled for delivery in late 2025. Work has also commenced on the fifth and final vessel of the class, the future Golden State, which is assigned to Cal Maritime and scheduled for delivery in 2026.

The U.S. Congress approved $325 million in funding to construct the NSMV in December 2020 for Texas A&M. The 524-foot state-of-the-art ship will feature instructional spaces, a full training bridge, and space for up to 600 cadets to train at sea. In addition, each ship of the class will have modern hospital facilities, a helicopter pad, and the ability to accommodate up to 1,000 people in times of humanitarian need. The NSMVs can also provide needed roll-on/roll-off and container storage capacity for use during disaster relief missions.

The first of the vessel, Empire State was delivered to SUNY Maritime College in New York and has completed its first training cruises. The second vessel, Patriot State, was delivered in September 2024 to Mass Maritime.

 

 

Texas A&M is currently using a hand-me-down from Mass Maritime as MARAD reassigned the TS Kennedy to the Texas college in April 2023 to replace a 1983-vintage ocean surveillance ship for the U.S. Navy that was sailing as the training ship General RudderKennedy is a 1967-built C-5 Far East Clipper-class break bulk cargo ship that sailed till 1985 as the Velma Lykes, for Lykes Bros. Steamship Company. She was in the reserve fleet and saw service during Dessert Storm in Kuwait in 1991 before becoming a training ship in 2003.

The float-out was the first milestone of the shipyard after South Korea’s Hanwha Group completed the acquisition of the shipyard in December 2024. The group has committed to investing in the operations of the yard and looks to expand into naval work. Its current order book includes a rock installation vessel for Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company and an order from Matson to build three 3,600 TEU, 854-foot Aloha Class container vessels. Steel cutting began in September 2024 with the vessels scheduled for delivery in 2026 and 2027.

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