11-ship OPC Stage 2 program is value a possible $3.3 billion
The Coast Guard yesterday issued a discover to Austal USA, the offshore patrol cutter (OPC) Stage 2 contractor, to proceed on element design work to assist future manufacturing of OPCs. The Coast Guard issued the discover following the withdrawal of the bid protest filed in July with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) by Eastern Shipbuilding Group Inc. (ESG). Once that protest was filed, as is the norm in these circumstances, the contract with Austal USA was placed on maintain.
The Coast Guard says that on June 30, 2022, it awarded a fixed-price incentive (agency goal) contract by a full and open competitors to Austal USA to provide as much as 11 offshore patrol cutters. The preliminary award is valued at $208.26 million and helps element design and lengthy lead-time materials for the fifth OPC, with choices for manufacturing of as much as 11 OPCs in whole. The contract has a possible worth of as much as $3.33 billion if all choices are exercised.
The Coast Guard’s necessities for OPC Stage 2 element design and manufacturing had been developed to take care of commonality with earlier OPCs in essential areas such because the hull and propulsion programs, however present flexibility to suggest and implement new design components that profit lifecycle price, manufacturing and operational effectivity and efficiency.
ESG was the unique prime contractor for the entire of the OPC program, however in June 2019 submitted a request to the Coast Guard’s father or mother company, the Department of Homeland Security for extraordinary contract aid after its shipbuilding amenities sustained vital injury ensuing from Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 storm, in October 2018. In response, then Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin Ok. McAleenan made the choice to grant extraordinary contract aid restricted to the primary 4 hulls. Following that, the Coast Guard revised the OPC acquisition technique “to mitigate emergent cost and schedule risk by establishing a new, full and open competition for OPCs five and through 15, designated as Stage 2 of the overall program.”
