Ross Wilkers
BAE Systems has won a contract to build two more ships for Jackson Offshore Operators to use when drilling in the Gulf of Mexico as BAE is aiming to win new ship construction contracts.
BAE expects to increase its Jacksonville, Fla. shipyard’s workforce by 120 to 400 people by the middle of this year and nearly double its Mobile, Ala. workforce from 850 to 1,500 by the end of this year, the company said Tuesday.
“These vessels will be deployed on multiyear contracts in the Gulf of Mexico,“ said Lee Jackson, Jackson Offshore Operators president and CEO.
Richard McCreary, vice president of BAE’s southeast shipyards business, said the company is aiming to grow backlog and employment in its Jacksonville shipyard in an uncertain federal budget environment.
Under a previous contract, the company has started building the first of two platform supply vessels, each measuring 252 feet long and 60 feet wide, and expects to finish building that ship in Jacksonville by 2015.
