A bill to fund the federal government through the end of FY ’16 includes an additional high-endurance cutter for the Coast Guard, moving the National Security Cutter (NSC) program beyond its planned buy of eight vessels.
A summary of the bill released by congressional appropriations committees on Wednesday says the $1.1 trillion Omnibus spending package includes funds to build a ninth NSC as well as six Fast Response Cutters, and an additional HC-130J maritime patrol aircraft.
Funding for a ninth NSC was included by Senate appropriators in June as part of their version of the FY ’16 bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The additional vessel was sought by Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), the committee chairman, whose campaign for re-election to the Senate in 2014 included a call to build 12 NSCs to replace the 12 aging Hamilton-class high-endurance cutters that are being phased out.
House appropriators had not included funding for a ninth NSC in their version of the DHS spending bill.
The 418-foot NSC is built by Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII] in Mississippi. The Coast Guard only planned for eight Legend-class NSCs to replace 12 Hamilton-class ships because the C4ISR suite in the new vessels is far superior to the communications and surveillance systems in the existing vessels, allowing the service to do more with less.
The Coast Guard is well on its way to recapitalizing its fleet of vessels. So far HII has delivered five of the NSCs and is under contract for three more. Bollinger Shipyards is constructing the first 32 of a planned buy of 58 FRCs and the Coast Guard has begun a contract to recompete the program for the remaining 26 patrol boats.
The Coast Guard is also hosting a competition for the construction of a new medium-endurance cutter fleet called the Offshore Patrol Cutter.
The Omnibus bill includes $41 billion in discretionary spending for DHS, $1.3 billion more than approved in FY ’15 and $443 million less than the Obama administration requested.