(MARBLEHEAD, Mass.) — RIBCRAFT, a leading manufacturer of rigid inflatable boats (RIBs) for law enforcement, safety professionals, and military agencies, announced that the United States Navy has awarded a five-year indefinite quantity contract to the company to provide 11-meter RIBs.
Under the contract, RIBCRAFT will build and deliver the 11-meter expeditionary mine countermeasure boat. RIBCRAFT has also been providing the U.S. Navy with 7-meter shipboard RIBs since 2014.
The 11-meter RIBs will serve to support explosive ordinance disposal mine countermeasure platoons in both shallow and deepwater operations. To achieve this, RIBCRAFT will build two configurations for mine countermeasure operations; one with an open aft deck for stowage and deployment of two combat rubber raiding craft, and the other featuring a launch, recover, and handling system for deployment and retrieval of an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) which will have the capability to launch, recover and handle two UUVs using a single davit.
Each vessel, with an overall length of 39 feet, will be equipped with twin Cummins QSB-6.7 473-hp diesel engines, twin HamiltonJet 292 waterjets, and Shockwave shock mitigating seating for improved crew comfort in all conditions. A critical operational requirement for these boats is that they must be transportable around the world by land, air or sea and be able to be readily deployed from a variety of Navy ship classes.
For more information, visit www.ribcraftusa.com.
