Forbes: Amid Concerns, Coast Guard About To Award 2nd Offshore...

Forbes: Amid Concerns, Coast Guard About To Award 2nd Offshore Patrol Cutter Contract

“After barely more than two weeks at the helm, the new U.S. Coast Guard Commandant, Admiral Linda Fagan, is poised to make her first multi-billion-dollar decision on the long-term future of the Coast Guard. Rumors suggest the Coast Guard is set to award a likely controversial construction contract for up to eleven medium-endurance Heritage-class Offshore Patrol Cutters.

While four of the Coast Guard’s planned set of 25 new Heritage class cutters are set to be built at Eastern Shipbuilding Group’s facilities in Panama City, Florida, a range of Coast Guard and industry stakeholders are eager to speed up the Offshore Patrol Cutter program, either adding to Eastern’s workload or potentially inaugurating a second cutter manufacturing site...

...The contract award announcement could occur at any time.

...But Austal USA, a mid-sized shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, is the underdog that might end up surprising everybody. With the production of the Austal-built Independence-class Littoral Combat Ships and Spearhead-class Expeditionary Fast Transport programs winding down, the shipyard, as it pivots to steel construction, is highly motivated to offer extremely favorable contract terms to the Coast Guard. As a yard that has demonstrated an unmatched ability to scale up and move forward, building ships in hurricane-hardened facilities, Austal may well have caught the bus, and is about to become the Coast Guard’s next major supplier.”


Prior to taking the top job, Fagan was commander of the vast Coast Guard Pacific Area. I think she’s visited the Alabama yard previously.

And in other news, last week Biden’s under-secretary of the Navy toured the Mobile yard accompanied by the Senate-confirmed Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) for the Department of Defense:



Maybe Twiggy has picked up the scent of imminent success.