The first two quarters of this year have been marked by the US Navy projects. Viktor Lenac Shipyard has a long-standing, successful cooperation with the US Navy.

Thanks to our competencies and the quality of our workmanship, we have been awarded a contract for repair of the newest US Navy Sixth Fleet ship, the expeditionary sea base - USS Hershel 'Woody' Williams (ESB 4), the first overhaul and repair of the ship since it had been delivered as a newbuilding in March 2020. The ship underwent regular annual maintenance works with special emphasis on electric power systems, auxiliary engines and SOLAS equipment. The USS Hershel "Woody” Williams is 240 metres long and 50 metres wide and has a carrying capacity of 72,000 tons and consumes approximately 1.7 MWh of electricity per hour. Only 10 fleet aircraft carriers exceed these dimensions. It operates with a hybrid crew of 50 civilians and 150 military personnel. This is the newest type of ship, built since only several years ago in support of the fleets at remote destinations, which require specific equipment repair certificates. Viktor Lenac Shipyard has been awarded this contract based on the principle of the best value, with reference to predetermined criteria, such as technical capability, references, and price.

Based on invitations to tender regular repair and maintenance of the US Navy aluminium catamarans, which in general take place from the end of the year to the middle of the next year, we have won the USNS Trenton and USNS Carson City shiprepair contracts for the first half of this year.

Works onboard the USNS Trenton involve regular annual repair and maintenance and intervention docking. Extensive repair and maintenance onboard the USNS Carson City include propulsion system, aluminium hull and structure repairs, painting of the underwater part using a special silicone coating from the American manufacturer Sherwin-Williams, maintenance of electric power systems and certification of the helicopter deck according to NAVAIR standards.

The occasion of having three ships of the US Navy undergoing repairs at our Shipyard at the same time, for the second time after 2018, which is extremely rare in the world outside the US and Japan, was the motive of the recent visit of the Sixth Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Gene Black to our Shipyard, as a continuation of the tradition of visits of the Sixth Fleet commanders to our Shipyard, which began in 2011 with the visit of Vice Admiral Franck Pandolf, next in 2015 Vice Admiral James Foggo and then in 2017 Vice Admiral Christopher W. Grady.