DEFENSE BUDGET ALLOWS $25 MILLION TO FASTSHIP PROJECT

DEFENSE BUDGET ALLOWS $25 MILLION TO FASTSHIP PROJECT    FastShip Atlantic, a Philadelphia-based company developing water-jet-powered, 40-knot-an-hour container vessels, is an unnamed recipient of $25 million currently in the U.S. Defense Department’s budget, a Maritime Administration spokesman told AS+.
   Title V of the U.S, Defense Appropriation Act for 2002 earmarks $25 million “to finance the cost of constructing additional sealift capacity.”
   A source close to the company, who asked for anonymity, said the $25 million was a “placeholder” to keep “warm” a much larger but unspecified amount in Title XI funds that would assist FastShip in building its first vessels. The MarAd spokesman confirmed that process.