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Ingalls: $76m AdvanceProcurement Contract Huntington Ingalls Industries said that its Ingalls Shipbuilding division received a $76 million fixed-price contract from the U.S. Coast Guard to purchase long-lead materials for a sixth National Secu-rity Cutter (NSC). Construction anddelivery of the yet-to-be-named WMSL 755 will be performed at the company's Pascagoula facility. A second phase of the contract, when awarded, would bring the overall value to $88 million. The advance procurement funds will be used to pur- chase major items for WMSL 755, in- cluding steel, the main propulsionsystems, generators, electrical switch-boards and major castings.Ingalls has delivered the first three NSCs, the flagship of the Coast Guard'scutter fleet, designed to replace the378?foot Hamilton-class high-endurancecutters, which entered service during the1960s. The first two ships are performing missions for the Coast Guard, while thethird ship, Stratton (WMSL 752), will becommissioned on March 31 in Alameda, Calif. The fourth NSC, also named Hamilton (WMSL 753), is currentlyunder construction, and the fifth, Joshua James (WMSL 754), will start fabrication later this year. MHI Kobe Shipyard: Last Commercial Vessel LaunchedThe christening and launch of a purecar carrier named the Emerald Ace took place last month at the Kobe Shipyard & Machinery Works of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), for delivery to Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. The ship is sig- nificant in that itrepresents the last com- mercial vessel to be built at the Kobe Shipyard, a consequence of the ongoing reorganization of MHI's production struc- ture in the company's Shipbuilding & Ocean Development business segment. Delivery of this historic vessel is slated for late June 2012. The ceremony was at- tended by a number of dignitaries, in-cluding Koichi Muto, president of Mitsui O.S.K.; Takanobu Ito, president of Honda Motor Co., Ltd., who together with hiswife performed the ship's tethering ropecut; and Hideaki Omiya, president ofMHI. Emerald Ace is hull no. 1296 built at the Kobe Shipyard, and it measures 200 x 32.26 m with a 34.5m depth. The 60,200-gt vessel is capable of carrying 6,400 units (standard passenger cars) at aservice speed of 20.7 knots, and it will beMitsui O.S.K.'s first ship to have a hybrid electric power supply system onboard. By using power from an energy storage system consisting of a large-size photo- voltaic power generation system and a lithium-ion rechargeable battery, the ves- sel at anchor can prevent emission of ex- haust gas from a diesel power generator and thereby realize "zero" emission inharbor. Since its foundation in 1905, the April 2012www.marinelink.com 25