Australian boatbuilder opens manufacturing facility in US

Australian boatbuilder The Whiskey Project Group (TWPG) recently expanded its operations in the United States with the opening of a new headquarters and manufacturing facility in the town of Edenton in North Carolina.

TWPG’s new US headquarters covers an area of 50 acres (20 hectares) and has both shipbuilding and warehousing facilities. The fabrication space will take up 100,000 square feet (9,000 square metres) and will house equipment for building both aluminium- and composite-hulled vessels for commercial and security applications.

Among the first vessels to be built at the Edenton facility are new multi-mission reconnaissance craft (MMRC) for the US military. The MMRCs will be available in 30-foot (eight-metre) and 40-foot (11-metre) variants and will be capable of reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition, interdiction, and battlespace shaping operations.

The first two 40-foot MMRCs were delivered to the US Marine Corps (USMC) earlier this year. TWPG will be supplying multiple examples of both MMRC variants to the USMC in fulfilment of a US$20.5 million contract.