Page 58: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 2011)

FEATURE U.S. COAST GUARD58Maritime Reporter & Engineering News The Coast Guard awarded a $179.7m contract option to Bollinger Shipyards of Lockport, La., September 22 for the pro-duction of four more Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutters (FRCs). This option award brings the total number of FRCs under contract with Bollinger to 12, witha current contract value of $597m. The current FRC contract contains options forup to 34 cutters and is worth up to $1.5 billion if all options are exercised. The FRCs acquired under this contract optionare scheduled to be delivered to the Coast Guard in 2014 and homeported in Key West, Fla. ?The Bollinger organization is very pleased that the U. S. Coast Guard hasawarded four additional Fast Response Cutters (FRC) to our on-going contract,? said Chris Bollinger. Execitove VP, Bollinger Shipyards, Inc. ?This follow- on award will result in an extension of our backlog for several years, and pro- vide jobs for over 500 Bollinger employ- ees. This award reflects the Coast Guard?s continued confidence in the quality products delivered by the Bollinger team, including our workforce and team of suppliers and contractors.? In September 2008, the Coast Guardawarded Bollinger an $88m production contract for the lead FRC. That ship, named the Bernard C. Webber, was launched on April 21 and will undergo sea trials prior to its anticipated delivery later this year. The second FRC, Richard Etheridge, was successfully launched Au- gust 18, and production is underway on FRCs #3-8. Webber will be homeported in Miami, Fla., and will primarily per- form missions to save lives, enforce U.S. and international maritime law and en- sure security in the Coast Guard?s 7th District off the Southeastern coast of the U.S. and in the Caribbean Sea. The Sentinel-class will eventually re- place the Coast Guard?s venerable Island- class 110-foot patrol boat. The FRCuses a proven, in-service parent craft design based on the Damen Stan Patrol 4708.It has a required flank speed of 28knots and will be armed with one stabi-lized, remotely-operated 25mm chaingun and four crew-served .50 caliber ma- chine guns. Other requirements includethe ability to perform independently fora minimum of five days at sea and capa- ble of underway operations for a mini- mum of 2,500 hours per year. It will use state-of-the-market command, control, communications and computer technol-ogy that will be interoperable with theCoast Guard?s existing and future assets, as well as Department of Homeland Se-curity and Department of Defense assets.The cutter will also meet American Bu- reau of Shipping design, build and class standards. The Coast Guard plans to ac- quire up to 58 FRCs. All FRCs delivered as part of the Sen- tinel-class will be named after enlistedCoast Guard heroes. FRCs nine throughtwelve will be named the Kathleen Moore, Joseph Napier, William Trump and Isaac Mayo, respectively. Bollinger Tapped to Build Four More FRCs Chris Bollinger, Bollinger Shipyards (Photos: Bollinger)MR Oct.11 # 8 (57-64):MR Template 10/7/2011 8:57 AM Page 58