Page 15: of Marine News Magazine (October 2022)

14 16

Q&A sation. So those communications do where we are. I’ve been here long terways Commerce Cutters, and here continue as it pertains speci? cally to enough. I can remember a time when we are with hopefully an announce- maritime domain there in the bearing. we weren’t even talking about the Wa- ment very, very soon.

Earlier you mentioned the importance of the U.S. port system, as well as inland wa- terway system. How close are we to the ? rst Waterways

Commerce Cutter construc- tion award and what are the remaining steps before a con- tract is announced? Can you please describe the impor- tance of these new vessels for the Coast Guard and for the maritime industry?

LF: The Waterway Commerce Cutters are absolutely critical to, again, ensur- ing the safety and resiliency of our in- land waterways system in the Western rivers. They are as vital as our major seaports are to the movement of com- merce and creating economic security and prosperity. We anticipate award- ing the detailed design and construc- tion contract for the ? rst Waterway

Commerce Cutter very soon. It’ll be done as a small business set aside, and we are anticipating delivery of that ? rst WCC as early as FY 2025. We’re really excited about where we are with regard to soon awarding that contract.

We’ll recapitalize 35 of the legacy inland tenders. To give you an idea on age on these, they were commis- sioned between 1944 and 1990. We’ll price those 35 legacy cutters with 30

WCCs. There’ll be three variants on it, 16 river buoy tenders, 11 inland construction tenders, and then three inland buoy tenders to ensure that we continue to meet, again, our obliga- tions to the resiliency and reliability and safe navigation of those inland waterways. We’re pretty excited about www.marinelink.com MN 15|