Coast Guard pushes to replace patrol fleet

[cec]

Coast Guard pushes to replace patrol fleet




By Patricia Kime - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jun 19, 2007 20:16:32 EDT

The Coast Guard is moving swiftly to purchase a new class of patrol boats to replace its aging 110-foot ships and eight 123-footers that have been hobbled in an ill-fated renovation effort.
The service plans to issue a request for proposal Friday for up to 58 new patrol boats.
According to the pre-solicitation notice released earlier this month, the Coast Guard seeks an existing class that can be adapted quickly for Coast Guard operations. The proposed vessel is to be a proven design of between 120 and 160 feet in length that can travel at speeds up to 28 knots, the notice states.
The announcement marks a departure from earlier plans to buy only 12 off-the-shelf vessels as replacements for the 123s and five borrowed U.S. Navy coastal patrol boats.
That effort was to be a stop-gap measure until the Coast Guard could build a new class of composite hull fast-response cutters.
But design work on the composite hull ship, the FRC-A, ran aground in February 2006 when the effort was suspended out of concerns for the vessels’ excessive weight and performance requirements.
The pending solicitation request will allow the Coast Guard to buy up to 46 boats after an initial 12, giving the service more options regarding future purchases, program manager Capt. Richard Murphy said June 13.
“The Coast Guard determined that it is prudent to include [the options]. By obtaining out-year options, the Coast Guard will have information upon which to base future decisions,” Murphy said in an e-mail to Navy Times.
The Government Accountability Office reported Tuesday that the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate plans to test a 150-foot composite hull prototype in 2010, about the time the first FRC-B comes online.
Thus, the Coast Guard has not completely shut the door on building the FRC-A, Commandant Adm. Thad Allen said June 12.
“We are still working out the details of the composite hull, and in the discussion of moving forward with the FRC-A, we have not come to a final decision,” Allen said.
The sidelined 123-foot program and FRC development delays have left the Coast Guard with an annual operational gap of 25,000 patrol boat hours.
The service is addressing the shortage by double-crewing eight 110-foot patrol boats along the Florida coast, extending their loan of three Navy patrol coastals and deploying extra Coast Guard vessels, such as ocean-going buoy tenders, to the southern Atlantic and Caribbean Sea.
The Coast Guard also is considering purchasing four more 87-foot patrol boats, Allen said.
In March 2007, the Coast Guard canceled the $600 million FRC contract with Deepwater partners Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, choosing instead to manage the acquisition itself.
The Coast Guard has spent $26.7 million on the composite hull FRC-A design.
A request for information from industry issued earlier this year garnered at least 26 patrol boat designs from 17 companies. The Coast Guard estimates that the FRC-B contract is worth up to $592 million.
“A [contract] award is anticipated in spring 2008,” Murphy said.
Northrop Grumman Ship Systems (NGSS) owns the composite facility in Gulfport, Miss., where the FRC-A would be built. Parent company Northrop Grumman proposed the composite design because it met Coast Guard requirements for a 35-year service life and 45-year fatigue life, spokesman Bill Glenn said.
“The composite design was actually lighter than an equivalent steel design that would have been needed to meet those requirements,” Glenn said.
The NGSS composite facility builds masts for the Navy’s San Antonio Class amphibious transport ships and will support construction of DDG 1000.



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