Swiftships

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Swiftships is a shipbuilding and marine engineering company headquartered in South Louisiana, USA. [1] Company operates globally [2] and specialized in the construction of small to medium sized vessels made of steel, aluminum or fiberglass. [1] [3] Swiftships is involved in ship design, construction, repair and maintenance activities.

Contents

History

Founded by Fred Sewart in 1942, Swiftships began as Sewart Machine Works and then as Sewart Seacraft [4] in 1946. Company became a supplier of “Swift Boats” to the US Navy during the Vietnam War (Swiftships delivered 193 Fast Patrol Crafts to the US Navy throughout the conflict). [2] The mission objective of the Swift Boat was to provide the Navy with a fast boat that could patrol the river shores for enemy soldiers. [5]

In 1969 the company was renamed as Swiftships. [6] [1]

Since 2004 and for the next years, Swiftships built ships for the oil and gas industry of the Gulf of Mexico [7] [8] and restored vessels for the Dominican Republic. [9]

Company has created its first fully unmanned surface vehicle in 2015, called Anaconda (AN-1), and later the Anaconda (AN-2), for which Swiftships teamed with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette [10] and augmented technology developers. [11] [12]

Since 1942 Swiftships has designed and built over 600 naval vessels and commercial platforms. [3]

Co-production

In 2008 the company signed a contract with the Egyptian Navy, initiating a co-production program, building vessels in-country. [13] The partnership includes a yard in Alexandria, where the company produces patrol crafts. [14]

In 2009, Swiftships was awarded a contract by the U.S. Navy to provide Follow on Technical Support on behalf of the Iraqi Navy that included the establishment of a Ship Repair Facility in Umm Qasr, Iraq. [15] [16] [17] [18]

Yards

In 2020, Swiftships operates 3 yards in USA and 1 co-production yard (JV) with Egyptian Navy in Alexandria, Egypt:

Products

Ship types include:

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PTF-26 is a PTF boat,, museum ship at the Maritime Pastoral Training Foundation in Golconda, Illinois. PTF-26 is referred to as "The Last American PT Boat". PTF-26 was built in 1968 by the Sewart Seacraft now know as Swiftships in Berwick, Louisiana. PTF-26 is small river gunboat built with an aluminium hull. The United States Navy used PTF-26 in the Vietnam War from 1968 to 1971 in the Brown-water navy. PTF-26 has a top speed of speed of 40 knots knots. She is an Osprey-class PTF boat and is 95 ft (29 m) long. PTF boats replaced the wooden World War II PT boats. Four new PTF boats were delivered to the Military Assistance Group (MACV) at Da Nang, Vietnam in 1968, PTF-26 was one of the four boats. The four boats were armed with a 40 mm Bofors cannon aft, two Oerlikon 20 mm cannon forward, two .50-caliber Browning machine guns and on the foredeck, a 81 mm mortar. From 1971 to 1990 she was used by the US Navy at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado and Pacific Missile Test Center, Port Hueneme From November 1997 to June 2020 she was with Liberty Maritime Inc. as a Sea Scout training ship at Sacramento, California. On her way to Maritime Pastoral Training Foundation she stopped at Morro Bay, California departing December 14, 2023, then on December 16, the Maritime Museum of San Diego, then the National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico and then Pickwick Lake of the Tennessee Valley Authority on July 2024. She is now at Golconda, Illinois where PTF-26 is the first historic naval ship in southern Illinois. At Golconda she is operated by Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps Cadets, Sea cadets and Sea Scouts.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "BOSS Magazine | Swiftships: The Sea's Best Aluminum Water Vessel". BOSS Magazine. 2018-03-01. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  2. 1 2 "Swiftly Going Places Where Others Fear". Swiftships. 2017-08-16. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Swiftships". shipbuildinghistory.com. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  4. ↑ "Yachts .com Swiftship Yachts". www.yachts.com. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  5. ↑ Network, Warfare History (2019-06-10). "Swift Boats: How America Used These Tiny Warships to Wage War In Vietnam". The National Interest. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  6. ↑ "Swiftships back in commercial market". WorkBoat. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  7. ↑ "Back to Business". WorkBoat. 2014-07-09. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  8. 1 2 "Swiftships Completing 20-Acre Repair Yard In Freeport, Texas". magazines.marinelink.com. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  9. ↑ "Entregan dos guardacostas a la flota naval dominicana - Diario Dominicano". www.diariodominicano.com. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  10. ↑ "Swiftships, UL Lafayette develop unmanned boat for military". University of Louisiana at Lafayette. 2013-10-21. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  11. 1 2 "AN-2 Anaconda". www.navaldrones.com. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  12. 1 2 "Robotic Marine Vehicles: Meet the Anaconda-2". magazines.marinelink.com. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  13. ↑ "Egyptian Navy to get four more vessels from Swiftships". defenceWeb. 2016-07-06. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  14. ↑ "Swiftships Strengthening Its Global Presence". www.monch.com. Retrieved 2020-01-05.
  15. ↑ "Swiftships gets $14.5 million more for Iraq Navy support". Marine Log. 2016-10-21. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  16. ↑ "Swiftships Orders Build Iraqi Navys Coastal Patrol Capabilities". Defense Industry Daily. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  17. ↑ "Swiftship cleared for $150m Iraqi Navy support contract". Naval Today. 2 August 2017. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  18. ↑ "US Approves $150m for Iraqi Navy Vessels and Ship Repair". Iraq Business News. 3 August 2017. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  19. ↑ IBERIAN, DWAYNE FATHERREE | THE DAILY. "Breaux adapting to changing boat market". The Daily Iberian. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  20. ↑ "Swiftships". Interlink Capital Strategies. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  21. ↑ "Currently we building of 6 fast patrol aluminium". Egyptian Ship Repair&Building Co. 2016-10-13. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  22. ↑ "Bahrain buys two American boats built Swiftships". weaponews.com. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  23. ↑ "BIDEC 2019: Swift Ships showcases fast patrol vessel and coastal patrol boat". www.armyrecognition.com. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  24. ↑ "Contracts for February 4, 2019". U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  25. ↑ "NAVSEA Picks Swiftships LLC to Design, Build LCU Replacement in $18M Contract Award". USNI News. 2018-04-04. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  26. ↑ "Landing Craft Utility (LCU) - Defense Daily". Defense Daily. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  27. ↑ Burgess, Richard R. (2020-04-03). "Navy Orders Four New LCU 1700 Utility Landing Craft from Swiftships". Seapower. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  28. ↑ "Pakistan orders two corvettes from US-based Swiftships". Quwa. 2017-10-31. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  29. ↑ Correspondent, The Newspaper's (2017-11-02). "Pakistan Navy buying vessels for special operations from US company". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2020-01-02.{{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
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