By Geoff Fein
When the USCGC Stratton (NSC-3) is launched next year, the Coast Guard and Northrop Grumman [NOC] Shipbuilding are looking to have her almost 80 percent complete, a steady improvement from the first two ships in the National Security Cutter-class, according to a Coast Guard official.
USCGC Bertholf (NSC-1) was almost 40 percent complete when she was launched. Likewise, the USCGC Waesche (NSC-2) was almost 60 percent complete, Capt. Peter Oittinen, NSC acquisition project manager, told Defense Daily yesterday.
“We are encouraging [Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding] and working with them to help them achieve that goal because we believe it will pay off for us as well,” Oittinen said.
Achieving those kinds of numbers for completion prior to launch will improve the first time quality of the work as well as the overall affordability of the ships, he added.
The service is anticipating Stratton’s christening to occur in the summer 2010 time frame. However, a more precise date is dependent upon the availability of the ship’s sponsor, First Lady Michelle Obama, Oittinen noted.
The Coast Guard still plans to take delivery of the Stratton in 2011, he added. “There is still a lot of work to be done.”
“Stratton is a little over 30 percent complete at this point. By the end of January Stratton will be completely erected,” Oittinen said. “We will walk out there and see a ship. She won’t be complete, but the external envelope will be done.”
The mast, which is the final piece to go on the ship, will be installed at the end of January, he added.
What Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding and the Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS) have done, Oittinen said, is “shifted work to the left earlier in the production cycle instead of on the water front, both at the block level in the stacking hull and then again on the erection ways. We are expecting that to pay some good dividends.”
Contracts for the first three NSCs were all let to ICGS, which had been the Coast Guard’s lead systems integrator for the Deepwater modernization program.
For NSC-4, the Coast Guard decided it would negotiate directly with Northrop Grumman.
The Coast Guard announced back in 2007 that it was taking over as lead system integrator for its Deepwater effort, and would end its relationship with ICGS once those contracts ran out (Defense Daily, April 18, 2007). Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin [LMT], were partners on ICGS.
With both the Bertholf (NSC-1) and Waesche (NSC-2) now in the hands of the Coast Guard, the service has moved to make some changes to the Stratton, although those changes won’t be visible, Oittinen.
“We did do structural modifications to NSC-3, in the design of NSC-3, to improve the overall service life and fatigue life based on some mathematical models,” he said. “Changes in structure, changes in shape, thickness, and details like that, to improve the overall stress levels in the fatigue life of the ship.”
That is the biggest change, Oittinen said. And those structural changes won’t have any short-term performance impacts. “You won’t see a faster ship, you won’t see a slower ship. Those changes will be [backfit] onto NSC-1 and -2.”
The reality is, he added, the Coast Guard is seeing very few changes, and actually no big changes.
“We are very happy with the design, so we are not expecting to tinker or tweak that at all,” Oittinen said.
“Primarily the changes we are seeing right now are Northrop Grumman’s modification to their production strategy in order to make it more producible and less expensive,” Oittinen added. “But in terms of the finished product, we are expecting to see a ‘cookie cutter copy, between NSC-2 and NSC-3.”
The Coast Guard has seen some cost savings with each launching of a new National Security Cutter, Oittinen said. “Some of it is attributed to the fact the shipyard has gotten better and has achieved some learning curve on the second ship.”
The Coast Guard is looking forward to and expecting to see, if not the same amount, to see some learning curve production savings on NSC-3 as well, Oittinen said.
“Again, bear in mind, we did a structural redesign on NSC-3 which is going to perhaps offset some of that. But we are looking forward and anticipate seeing some reduction in cost as a result of that,” he said. “As long as ICGS, and Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin can maintain their productivity and efficiency and improve on them wherever possible, then everybody will see those benefits.”
Just before Thanksgiving, the Coast Guard received a proposal from Northrop Grumman to build NSC-4–the first cutter to be built since the service terminated its relationship with ICGS.
“The RFP (request for proposals) was for up to two ships. NSC-5 is the option hull in the RFP,” Oittinen said.
“Once we get NSC-4 and -5 built we will have three ships left,” he added. “I would expect we would attempt to award a single contract for the remaining three ships.”