Swiftships

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.

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:

• Morgan City, Louisiana^[3]
• New Iberia, Jennerate,^[19][20] Louisiana
• Freeport, Texas^[8]
• Egyptian Shipyard Repair Building Co. - partnership with the Egyptian Navy to co-produce Swift vessels in Egypt under an approved MLA by the United States government.^[21]

Products

Ship types include:

• Fast Patrol Vessels: company supplied vessels to Iraq (Swiftships Model 35PB1208 E-1455), Bahrain,^[22] US governments and other.^[23]
• Landing Craft: company has long-term agreement with a US government to build up to 32 new series LCU 1700 Class.^{[24][25][26][27]}
• Corvettes: Swiftships started program with Pakistan Navy to build multi-purpose naval platforms, 75 meter corvette, for security and high threat missions.^[28][29]
• Fast Supply Vessels: to Rodi Marine and other commercial groups.^[3]
• Unmanned Surface Vessels- Anaconda (AN-2)^[11][12]