Lockheed to build high-
tech Navy ship for
UH research

Star-Bulletin staff

Lockheed Martin Corp. has been awarded a $42.3 million contract to build the 2,500-ton research ship based on an innovative design called Swath -- for small waterplane-area twin-hull -- for the Navy, which will base it in Hawaii.

The ship will rest above the surface of the water on stilts connected to two cigar-shaped submerged hulls. The design is intended to keep the deck relatively stable, even in rough seas.

The ship will be built at Atlantic Marine Inc. in Jacksonville, Fla. The Navy intends to lend it to the University of Hawaii for oceanographic research.

Navatek Ships Ltd. uses a ship with similar design for passenger cruise line service in Hawaii.

Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, pushed Congress to approve $45 million in design, construction and operating funds for the ship.

The new ship would replace Hawaii's 25-year-old research vessel, the Moana Wave, and was seen as essential to the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology if it was to remain one of the nation's top oceanographic programs.

Lockheed is better known as the maker of the F-16 fighter jet and C-130J transport plane and does $2.5 billion worth of systems and services work for the Navy yearly.