Austal says that it has now entered into a 45-day exclusive period to close the agreement with Marine Group reporting that the deal is scheduled to close in mid-December 2021. Austal USA will establish a full-service ship repair capability providing maintenance and modernization for small surface combatants, autonomous vehicles, and other vessels. The site will include a dry dock optimized to execute availabilities on littoral combat ships and other small surface combatants. Services will include technical and material support, topside work, and dry docking availabilities. A newly-built dry dock will be installed at the site designed specifically to handle small surface combatants and other small to medium-size ships.