Cutters prominent in CG requests

Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz, fresh from the commissioning of the newest Fast Response Cutter (FRC) Terrell Horne, was to take the CG’s proposed $11.3B budget requests for FY 2020 before Congress on March 26. The budget request includes $9.32B in discretionary funding needed to recapitalize the cutter force, build new infrastructure, accelerate the deployment of unmanned aerial systems on National Security Cutters (NSC); upgrade aircraft; and chip away at a $1.7B shore infrastructure backlog. The proposed budget includes $1.2B for procurement, construction and improvements, including $457M for an Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC) and materials for the next two; $140M to buy two FRCs; $35M for production activities tied to the new Polar Security Cutter program; and $15M for a service life extension project (SLEP) for the Coast Guard's only heavy icebreaker Polar Star. The budget also would provide $200M for a SLEP of the MH-60T helicopter, upgraded MH-65 helicopters, adapt HC-27Js and HC-144As for service's missions; and for ScanEagle drones for those NSCs. The FY-20 requests are lower than the CG's FY-19 appropriations and 8 percent lower than its FY-18 enacted budget. (Source: Military.com 03/25/19) Gulf Coast Note: Eastern Shipbuilding Group of Panama City, Fla., was awarded detail design contract for the Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC) in September 2016. Long Lead Time Materials (LLTM) was awarded in September 2017. Construction began in FY 2018 with delivery of the lead OPC planned for FY 2021. Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., is the sole builder of Legend Class National Security Cutters for the Coast Guard. The service exercised a contract option worth over $294.4M with Bollinger Shipyards of Lockport, La., for production of six Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutters (FRCs). The option brought the total number of FRCs under contract with Bollinger to 50. The total value of the contracts is nearly $929M. The contract has a potential value of $1.42B if 58 FRC buys are exercised.