Alabama Shipyard Triumphs in Federal Battle: An Alabama shipyard, granted a $3.3 billion contract for 11 Coast Guard cutters, secured a positive verdict in federal litigation.
Chief Judge Elaine Kaplan ruled against Eastern Shipbuilding, constructing the initial four Offshore Patrol Cutters. The Panama City-based shipbuilder contested after Austal USA won the subsequent cutter contract.
The first 360-foot cutter, future USCGC Argus, launched on Oct. 27, with the Coast Guard planning to order 25 in total.
Kaplan heard sealed oral arguments on Aug. 3 in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The odds of Eastern Shipbuilding reversing the decision were slim; only 9.7% of protests are upheld by the court.
Despite being new to military shipbuilding, Eastern anticipates the four-cutter program will generate 10,304 jobs from 2016 to 2024.
Austal, based in Mobile, builds U.S. Navy ships primarily of aluminum construction. It’s expanding to build steel ships and has contracts for various naval projects, including salvage ships and submarine modules.
The program costs, intended to replace 28 aging ships with 25 cutters, surged by 40% since 2012, per a recent report from the General Accounting Office.
With the Coast Guard’s medium endurance cutters ranging from 1964 to 1991, addressing personnel shortages, the service plans to decommission three older cutters permanently and temporarily sideline seven 87-foot patrol boats.
In August, Eastern secured a contract to build a medium hopper-type barge for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
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