MOBILE, Ala. (AP) – Austal USA marked the start of a warship project with a keel-laying ceremony at its Mobile shipyard.

The military celebration Thursday, complete with the Navy Band New Orleans, marked the beginning of a new design for Navy ships.

The keel-laying tradition dates to the Navy’s beginnings and the laying of a wooden keel for the USS Constitution in November 1794, according to Delores Etter, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, who spoke at Thursday’s ceremony.

“Much has changed in the world and much has changed in technology,” Etter said. “But some things do not change. Today we still celebrate the transition from a vision to a physical shape.”

A massive aluminum keel – the spine on which the ship will be built – was already in place when guests including government officials and most of Austal’s 430 employees arrived.

Austal is the shipbuilder for a team led by Maine-based Bath Iron Works, a subsidiary of General Dynamics Corp., which in October won the $223 million contract to build a version of the Navy’s newest vessel – the littoral combat ship, or LCS.

The LCS is a key component in the Navy’s plan to build a more nimble, and less expensive, fleet of fighting ships.

Lockheed Martin Corp., the nation’s largest defense contractor, is leading a team to build the first LCS in Wisconsin. The two contractors were chosen from an original group of 18 teams vying to build the ships, which at about $220 million each cost substantially less than the Navy’s $3 billion “next-generation” DD(X) destroyer.

“As the destroyer has become the workhorse of the blue water, the LCS will be the workhorse and protector of coastal regions of the world,” Dugan Shipway, president of Bath Iron Works, said.

Austal’s Mobile shipyard may eventually employ 1,600 people, according to John Rothwell, executive chairman for Austal Ltd. which jointly owns Austal USA with Bender Shipbuilding & Repair Co. Inc.

Information from: Mobile Register, http://www.al.com/mobileregister