The Coast Guard last Friday evening released the draft Request for Proposals (RFP) for its new medium-endurance cutter, saying it plans to award up to three preliminary design contracts in FY ’13 leading to a downselect to a single contractor in FY ’16.
The contract for the winning design will include options for up to nine Offshore Patrol Cutters (OPCs), with delivery of the first vessel slated for FY ‘20. The contract will include provisions that enable the Coast Guard to acquire the data and design rights of the OPC, allowing the service to host a follow-on competition for the next lot of ships, a Coast Guard spokesman told Defense Daily yesterday.
The Coast Guard is running a similar procurement program for its Fast Response Cutters (FRC), which are being built by Bollinger Shipyards. Bollinger is building up to 34 FRCs under a potential $1.5 billion contract but the Coast Guard, through the acquisition of the data and design rights for the vessel, plans on holding a second competition to complete the program of record of 58 patrol vessels.
The OPC draft RFP says that the Coast Guard would begin awarding construction contracts for one ship annually for three years beginning in FY ’17 and then bump up to two vessels annually beginning in FY ’20. Affordability is a key program driver and for the fourth through ninth vessels, the Coast Guard expects the winning contractor to be able to achieve an average annual unit cost of $276 million per ship.
The Coast Guard is seeking responses to the draft RFP by July 16. The final RFP is slated to be released in September. The draft says that proposals would be due by Jan. 10, 2013.
The program of record for the OPC remains at 25 vessels. The program, including design and construction, is estimated cost about $8.1 billion.
The OPC program has been beset by delays as the Coast Guard continued to hone the requirements for the program, which the service expects to remain operational for 40 years (Defense Daily, March 8). In March, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Bob Papp outlined some of the key requirements, which include the ability to operate its air and additional surface elements in rough seas, a minimum range of 8,500 nautical miles and an objective range of 9,500 nautical miles at 14 knots sustained speed.
The concept of operations (CONOPS) for the OPC says that the vessels will be equipped with state-of-the art C4ISR capabilities to “operate in a highly complex network centric environment.” The ships will have interoperability with other vessels from the Defense Department, Department of Homeland Security, NATO allies and other government agencies. The OPC will also have a “Ship’s Signals Exploitation Space” to allow the vessels to leverage the capabilities of the intelligence community and to serve as a “forward intelligence collection asset for greater maritime domain awareness,” according to the CONOPS.
The OPC will primarily operate in deep waters supporting missions such as search and rescue, drug and migrant interdiction, defense readiness, and ports, waterways and coastal security.
“Through its unique set of law enforcement and military capabilities, the [OPC] will bridge the gap between the Coast Guard’s law enforcement/homeland security mission priorities and the Navy’s military defense mission priorities,” the CONOPS says. It also says that the vessels will be able to add capabilities to “conduct operations in higher threat environments in support of national security objectives.”
The OPCs will replace the Coast Guard’s aging fleet of medium-endurance cutters, which are aren’t keeping up with needs. Papp said that the services fleet of large endurance cutters are only meeting 70 percent of their programmed underway hours and are sailing more often than not with “debilitating casualties.”