From the outside, the future USNS Billy Frank Jr. looks like a ship. Below decks, it looks like a utility plant.

Its bulbous, utilitarian exterior tells you it’s not a warship. The stout crane and workboat-like back deck hint at its mission: towing, salvage and rescue. Below decks it’s all engines and generators and banks of electrical power-handling equipment that seem big enough to support a modest town. Well, that and accommodations for around 60 people and a cargo area big enough to swallow several shipping containers whole.

“It’s a neat ship,” said Larry Ryder, Austal USA ’s vice president of business development and external affairs. “It’s got a lot of capability. It’s got the power to tow an aircraft carrier.”

It is also, for now, the most tangible evidence that Austal USA has

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