UNITED STATES COAST GUARDUSCG The Fleet Faces ForwardCoast Guard Replacing Aging Ships with 91 New Cutters By Edward Lundquisthe numerous cutters and craft place, we now have the construction of the U.S. Coast Guard — funding for Kimball and we have re-from the sail training ship Ea- ceived the funding to purchase long lead Tgle to the large oceangoing pa- time materials for our eighth NSC, the trol ships; from polar icebrakers to small Midgett.”utility boats — form a formidable ? eet to The new 418-ft., 4,434 ton NSCs have meet the many challenging assignments smaller crews–around 122 on Bertholf—undertaken by the service. In 2014 the than the 170 people on the smaller 378s. Coast Guard continues its recapitaliza- Bertholf has both diesels and a single tion program with its National Secu- gas turbine, which together can achieve rity Cutter (NSC), Fast Response Cutter speeds above 28 knots, and 24 knots on (FPC) and Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC). diesels alone. The service plans to procure 91 cut- Bertholf is the ? rst Coast Guard vessel ters (8 NSCs, 25 OPCs and 58 FRCs) to carry the newest version of the Close-to replace are 90 aging cutters and pa- in Weapon System (CIWS 1B), and the trol boats. According to a Feb. 14 report BAE Systems Bofors 57mm gun for use by the Congressional Research Service against both air and surface targets (CRS), “The NSC, OPC, and FRC pro- The biggest difference you can’t see is grams have a combined estimated ac- the total ship computing environment, Eastern Shipbuilldingquisition cost of about $21.1 billion, and and SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented In-the Coast Guard’s proposed FY2014 formation Facility), which provides “in-budget requested a total of $716 million formation assurance” and permits better in acquisition funding for the three pro- command and control and interoperabil-Offshore Patrol Cuttergrams.” ity than any previous cutter.The new ships will feature more auto- “They add a level of capability that mation and therefore smaller crews. moves the Coast Guard to even more “Many of these 90 ships are manpow- effective service at greater value for the The U.S. Coast Guard awarded three ? rm ? xed-price contracts February er-intensive and increasingly expensive taxpayer,” said Papp. “And with contin-to maintain, and have features that in ued support in FY15, we hope to soon 11, 2014, for preliminary and contract design (P&CD) for the Offshore some cases are not optimal for perform- complete one of the most signi? cant ac-ing their assigned missions,” the CRS quisition projects our history.”Patrol Cutter (OPC) acquisition project; 25 ships are planned report said. The U.S. Coast Guard awarded three The total value of the award is approximately $65m.The USCGC Bertholf class NSC rep- ? rm ? xed-price contracts on Feb. 11, resents the Coast Guard’s largest and 2014, for preliminary and contract de-most capable general-purpose cutters, sign (P&CD) for the Offshore Patrol costing about $684 million each. It is, Cutter (OPC) acquisition project. The Preliminary Design Contractorsin fact, a multi-role combatant. Three contracts — worth about $22 million are in service and three more are under each — were awarded to Bollinger Ship-• Bollinger Shipyardsconstruction oat Huntington Ingalls in yards Lockport LLC (Lockport, La.), Pascagoula, Miss. A total of eight ships Eastern Shipbuilding Group Inc. (Pan- Teamed with Gibbs & Cox, L-3 Communications andare planned as replacements for the 12 ama City, Fla.) and General Dynamics, Damen Shipyards GroupHamilton-class of 378-foot high endur- Bath Iron Works (Bath, Maine). From ance cutters. these three preliminary designs a single • Eastern Shipbuilding“In October we christened our fourth team will be selected for detailed de-National Security Cutter, the Hamilton, sign, and that team will build the initial Teamed with STX Marine and Northrop Grummanwhich will soon join Bertholf, Waesche ship with an option to build up to ten and Stratton,” said Commandant of the OPCs. The Coast Guard said it is “us-• General Dynamics Bath Iron Works Coast Guard Adm. Bob Papp aduring his ing a deliberative, two-phased design- Teamed with L-3 Communications and Navantia2014 State of the Coast Guard address build strategy to acquire the OPC. This on Feb. 27. “We will christen our ? fth, approach establishes stable requirements the James, this summer. Our sixth, the and design early on in the life of the ac-Munro, is in production. We have con- quisition, which helps mitigate cost and The NSC, OPC, and FRC programs have a combined tracted for the major propulsion systems schedule risks.”and other equipment for number seven, The OPCs will be smaller than the estimated acquisition cost of about $21.1 billion.the Kimball. With FY14 spending in NSC, less capable, and presumably less 28 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • MARCH 2014MR #3 (26-31).indd 28 MR #3 (26-31).indd 28 3/4/2014 10:14:22 AM3/4/2014 10:14:22 AM