WASHINGTON, March 15 (UPI) -- The Coast Guard announced late Wednesday it will begin a $600 million cutter-class boatbuilding competition in May.
The Deepwater Fast Response Cutter-B deal is meant to yield 12 boats for the Coast Guard beginning in 2010. It is part of the Coast Guard's $24 billion, 25-year overhaul program.
The "B" version is meant to close a gap in Coast Guard capabilities created by problems with the design of the Fast Response Cutter "A" version under development by Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, teamed as "Integrated Coast Guard Systems."
The two are partnered on a $2.4 billion contract to build 46 advanced cutters using a composite hull rather than a traditional steel hull. However, the Coast Guard suspended design work on that contract a year ago when the design came up against technical problems.
That is when the Coast Guard initiated the "B" program, an attempt to patch the gap the now-delayed Fast Response Cutter-A would have. The Coast Guard did two things: It initiated a technical assessment to determine if the technology existed to make the A version possible, and asked ICGS to open a design competition for a more conventional cutter under its design contract, a move meant to save time.
ICGS held the design competition but recently informed the Coast Guard that if ICGS held a production competition it would delay production of the 120-foot FRC-B vessel by a year. The Coast Guard announced Wednesday it would assume control of the FRC-B competition and will release a request-for-proposals in May to build the 12 ships.
Meanwhile, Lockheed and Northrop are waiting to hear whether the $3 billion FRC-A contract will go forward as planned. It does not look promising: Deepwater spokeswoman Mary Elder told UPI Thursday the initial results from the Coast Guard's technical assessment show the composite hull of the FRC-A cannot be supported by current technology. The final results will be released this spring, she said.
The boats are meant to replace the COast Guard's Island-class patrol boat, a 110-foot patrol vessel that lacks modern communications and electronics and has been struggling with the effects years of service have had on their hulls.
The FRC-B is the smallest of the three new classes of ships envisioned in the ambitious and high-prices Deepwater program to modernize the Coast Guard from stem to stern. Deepwater has been under fire in Washington over escalating costs and reputedly lack oversight.
