
The Court of Federal Claims in early November rejected a protest by one of the losing bidders for the second stage of the Coast Guard’s offshore patrol cutter (OPC) program, upholding the service’s $3.3 billion award to Austal USA in June 2022. Eastern Shipbuilding Group (ESG), which is building the first four OPCs under Stage 1 of the program, initially protested the award to the Government Accountability Office in July 2022 but later withdrew the complaint and filed a bid…