The Coast Guard on Friday said it has awarded Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII] a $482 million contract to construct the fifth Legend-class National Security Cutter (NSC), to be named James.
Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2012 at HII’s shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., following pre-fabrication.
The award closely follows delivery by HII to the Coast Guard of the third NSC, the Stratton. Last month, HII began fabrication of NSC 4, the Hamilton.
The Coast Guard plans to acquire eight NSCs.
The production award for the James comes less than a year after a $480 million award for the Hamilton (Defense Daily, Dec. 1, 2010). Then earlier this year the Coast Guard awarded HII $89 million for long-lead procurement items for the James (Defense Daily, Jan. 20).
The production contract for the Hamilton came at least a year later than the Coast Guard had planned, which will result in a production break between the delivery of the Stratton and the Hamilton. The Hamilton is expected to be delivered in 2014.
With the James on contract as planned under the revised schedule, the 418-foot cutter is expected to be delivered in 2015, a year after the Hamilton. The Coast Guard would like to have deliveries of the NSCs to occur on an annual basis until the eighth vessel is delivered.
However, production plans beyond NSC 5 may be iffy unless Congress can agree on funding for proceeding with NSC 6. Amid an atmosphere of federal debt concerns, the House in the spring zeroed a $77 million appropriations request in FY ‘12 by the Coast Guard for long-lead production materials for the sixth cutter.
Last week the Senate Appropriations Committee voted in favor of the $77 million budget request for NSC 6 materials. If the full Senate agrees, which is likely, House and Senate Appropriators will attempt to resolve their differences in conference.
HII believes that if Congress agrees to fund long-lead production for NSC 6 in the FY ’12 Homeland Security budget, and follows with construction funding in the FY ’13 budget, then it will be able to deliver the vessel on schedule in 2016.
The Coast Guard said that improvements in its acquisition efforts are having a stabilizing impact on programs like the NSC, leading to efficiencies in cost and schedule.
The Legend-class cutters are replacing the Coast Guard’s fleet of 40-year-old Hamilton-class high endurance cutters, which are deteriorating rapidly and costing the service a lot of money to keep operating.