Dow Jones, PERTH: Boat builder Austal Ltd. said Monday it has joined with a unit of U.S. weapons company Raytheon Co. (RTN) to tender for a contract with the Australian government to build two amphibious ships at a cost of up to A$2.0 billion.
Austal said in a statement the preferred bidder is likely to be identified by late 2005 with the two Royal Australian Navy vessels scheduled to be delivered for service between 2010 and 2014.
The indicative cost to build the two vessels is A$1.5 billion to A$2.0 billion.
Austal Managing Director Bob McKinnon said jointly tendering for the contract with Raytheon – which has annual sales of US$18 billion – creates a “powerful team” with “considerable” potential to bid for other Australian navy contracts in the future.
