Page 36: of Marine News Magazine (May 2014)

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SHIPBUILDING

I n February, the U.S. Coast Guard chose three fi nalists to design its new Offshore Patrol Cutters, with awards to Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, La., Eastern Ship- building Group in Panama City, Fla. and General Dynam- ics’ Bath Iron Works in Maine. Each company was awarded a Phase I design contract valued at between $21 million and $22 million. At the end of the 18-month Preliminary and

Contract Design Phase I, the Coast Guard will choose one company’s team for a Phase II Detailed Design and Con- struction contract for the lead OPC. Planned for fi scal year 2016, the Phase II design exercise will include options for that company to produce a fi rst OPC and up to ten more.

In one of the government’s biggest, recent surface-ship construction initiatives, the Coast Guard wants to acquire 25 OPCs, at an estimated cost of $10.5 billion. The OPC is a next-generation, medium endurance vessel that will replace the Guard’s aging fl eet of 210-foot Medium En- durance Cutters, built in the 1960s, and 270-foot cutters, dating to the 1980s.

Each of the three company fi nalists proposed a different vessel, and they’ll use their $21 million to $22 million in

Phase I to develop more detailed designs, with engineering.

The Guard has strict specifi cations as to what it wants, classed to American Bureau of Shipping NVR or Naval Vessel Rules.

Vessel Designs Expected To Be Similar “We designed following guidelines in the Coast Guard’s request for proposal,” issued in Sept. 2012, said Kenneth

Munroe, executive vice president and chief operating of- fi cer at Eastern Shipbuilding. “You’re going to see a lot of similarities between vessel designs from each of the fi nalists.

They may come in different shapes and different arrange- ments but they’ll be fairly close to one another. We have to follow the specifi cations, and you can’t just throw stuff in.“

What’s more, “the USCG has made the point that price will be important,” Munroe said. The Coast Guard wants the OPC’s range and endurance to be greater than today’s cutters, with improved command, control, communica- tions, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnais- sance equipment, along with more powerful weapons and a larger fl ight deck. OPC designs will incorporate green technologies that cut energy use and reduce waterborne noise and waste streams.

The Coast Guard’s phased approach aims to control its fi nal costs by creating competition in the design stage. The progressive design-build strategy sets requirements early on, reducing risks associated with construction costs and sched- ules. The Coast Guard released a draft of its RFP and tech- nical data packages in 2012 to give the industry a look at its

OPC requirements before issuing its RFP in September of that year. The agency talked with potential vendors in 2010 during industry day events and in one-on-one meetings.

Stakes are high for the companies involved. Landing a contract to build will create many skilled jobs in the region around the shipyard. Senators and congressmen from Flori- da, Maine and Louisiana are monitoring the Guard’s acquisi- tion process. Work will fl ow outside of the country, too, since each of the company’s design teams has a foreign partner.

Huntington Ingalls and VT Halter

Protest the Awards

Huntington Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula, Miss. and

VT Halter Marine in Pascagoula were not chosen as fi nal- ists in February. And last year, the Coast Guard passed on designs from Fincantieri’s Marinette Marine in Marinette,

Wis., General Dynamics’ National Steel and Shipbuilding

Co. or NASSCO, and Vigor Shipyards in Seattle, Wash..

On Feb. 24 and Feb. 25, respectively, Huntington In- galls and VT Halter Marine protested the design awards through fi lings with the Government Accountability Of-

The OPC Sweepstakes:

Three for the Money

Three Companies Compete For USCG’s Lucrative OPC Contract

By Susan Buchanan

May 2014 36 MN

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