The Coast Guard last Thursday said it has awarded Bollinger Shipyards a $179.7 million contract to produce four more Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutters (FRCs), raising to 12 the number of FRCs under contract with the Louisiana-based ship builder.
Bollinger Shipyards is under contract to build up to 34 FRCs for $1.5 billion if all options are exercised. The four vessels awarded under the latest contract option are scheduled to be delivered to the Coast Guard in 2014 and homeported in Key West, Fla.
The 154-foot FRCs are replacing the 110-foot Island-class patrol cutters.
Separately, the Coast Guard last week awarded a $24 million delivery order to Marinette Marine Corp. (MMC) for the production of 11 additional Response Boats-Medium, bringing to 126 the number or RB-Ms the service has contracted for production. Since 2008, 68 RB-Ms have been delivered to Coast Guard stations around the country to meet requirements for search and rescue, ports, waterways and coastal security, and drug and migrant interdiction.
MMC is a Wisconsin-based division of Italy’s Fincantieri.