Congressman Jerry Carl (AL-01) on Wednesday hosted Secretary of the U.S. Navy Thomas Harker on a tour of the state-of-the-art Austal USA manufacturing facility in Mobile.

This comes after Austal last week broke ground on its new steel manufacturing line.

“Today, I had the opportunity to host Secretary Harker on a tour of Austal USA’s manufacturing facility, where we were able to showcase the steel investment and modernization underway at the shipyard,” said Carl in a statement. “I appreciate Secretary Harker taking the time to learn more about Austal USA’s immense contributions to our national defense footprint.”

“I was also pleased to share with Secretary Harker about Austal’s standing in our community and how Alabama’s local, state, and federal elected officials work together to support Austal USA and its 3,500 employees. I’m proud to have Austal USA in the First Congressional District, and I will continue doing all I can to support them from the federal level,” he concluded.

This also comes after Austal on Tuesday launched the future USS Canberra (LCS 30) into the Mobile River. This is the first Navy ship that Austal has launched this year and the first one to launch from Austal’s recently acquired dry dock. Canberra is an Independence-variant littoral combat ship, one of 19 that the Navy has contracted Austal to build. The next step is sea trials and then delivery.

Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn