USCG to order FRC cutters

The US Coast Guard (USCG) wants to build a total of 58 FRCs (fast response cutters) which are urgently needed to replace worn-out 34 metre cutters now in service. A previous plan to rebuild the existing cutter fleet ended after the first converted ships developed serious hull integrity problems.

Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, Pascagoula, Miss., has strongly been pushing its composite design, to be built at its facility in Gulfport, Miss. The Coast Guard had earlier planned to order a prototype composite FRC cutter in 2006, but those plans are now on hold. The tender expected in a few weeks is for an existing alternative design that could be put in production quickly while work continues on the composite craft.

Since splitting the FRC program in two, the service now refers to the composite project as FRC-A, and the alternative design as FRC-B. Up to 19 international manufacturers with 27 different designs responded to a request for information put out in February to seek patrol boats that might meet USCG requirements. None of the initial submissions met those requirements and the Coast Guard had to modify some of its specifications. As a result, five or six of the designs show promise.