Austal Ltd.'s Executive Chairman, John Rothwell, who flew in for the event from Austal's Head Office in Western Australia, commented, "I am both proud and excited to be a part of these festivities today. This new production facility signifies the bright future in both US defence and commercial aluminium shipbuilding that our company has ahead of us." When added to the existing facility the new construction halls provides a combined total covered area of 16,500 square metres for ship production, roughly quadruple the existing facility.