Tag Archives: Offshore Patrol Cutters

Eastern Shipbuilding Stops Work on all Coast Guard Offshore Patrol Cutters

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So much unrealized potential…

The future Offshore Patrol Cutter ARGUS, in launch position, 2023. Photo Eastern Shipbuilding Group

After being chosen to supply as many as 25 new 360-foot Heritage-class Offshore Patrol Cutters to the USCG in 2016, Panama City’s Eastern Shipbuilding Group has been consistently playing the whomp-whomp tuba.

After nearly a decade, not a single ship is within striking distance of entering service.

Yes, the yard was all but flattened by Hurricane Michael in 2018, but that was seven years ago and of the four cutters they were working on in the first flight (Hull# 302A: WMSM-915: USCGC Argus, Hull# 305A: WMSM-916: USCGC Chase, Hull# 307A: WMSM-917: USCGC Ingham, and Hull# 309A: WMSM-918: USCGC Rush) only Argus has hit the water and has slowly been fitting out for the past 25 months but is still long from finished, while work on the last two were ordered stopped by DHS back in June as so little progress had been made.

Now, as reported by GCaptain, ESG has announced the suspension of work on the U.S. Coast Guard’s first two Offshore Patrol Cutters (Argus and Chase), citing unsustainable financial pressures and workforce reductions as the company struggles with what CEO Joey D’Isernia described as “significant financial strain caused by the program’s structure and conditions.”

However, ESG is still hard at work on commercial vessels and Ingalls, and by extension, the Navy, in September inked a contract with ESG to help craft subassemblies for Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, so, yeah. That doesn’t sound promising for anyone involved.

As for the OPC program, the USCG has shifted it to Austal in nearby Mobile, which has just wrapped up its semi-successful (at least they were delivered) Independence-class LCS program.

The Coast Guard should bounce back.

It’s not the first time that they had a disastrous start to a large cutter program; just look back to the 270-foot Bear (Famous) class cutters of the 1980s, in which the original contract winner didn’t even own a shipyard, and the yard eventually selected, the Tacoma Boatbuilding Company, soon entered Chapter 11. Yacht builder Robert E. Derecktor went on to finish the class, and the Bears have been soldiering on admirably ever since.

OBBB has an Upside for the Country’s Budget Sea Service

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The 940-page One Big Beautiful Bill Act, H.R.1, has something in it for everyone to like, and everyone to hate, making it a universal adapter of sorts.

While I have written extensively in my column at Guns.com about the NFA-related gun reform (or lack thereof) included in the bill, it should be noted with a grumble that among its trainloads of pork is a huge defense department bump. A $150 billion mandatory funding bump at that.

What may be missed by others is that it also has a record $25 billion windfall for the USCG (“the largest single commitment of funding in Service history”), a welcome sight for one of the most shoestring of uniformed services. Keep in mind that the Coast Guard’s annual FY26 budget is just $14.5 billion.

As noted by the service, “this funding will allow the Coast Guard to procure an estimated 17 new icebreakers, 21 new cutters, over 40 helicopters, and six C-130J aircraft while modernizing shore infrastructure and maritime surveillance systems.”

Investment highlights include:

  • $4.4 billion for shore infrastructure, training facilities, and homeports
  • $4.3 billion for Polar Security Cutters, extending U.S. reach in the Arctic
  • $4.3 billion for nine new Offshore Patrol Cutters
  • $3.5 billion for three Arctic Security Cutters
  • $2.3 billion for more than 40 MH-60 helicopters
  • $2.2 billion for depot-level maintenance to sustain readiness
  • $1.1 billion for six new HC-130J aircraft and simulators
  • $1 billion for Fast Response Cutters
  • $816 million for light and medium Icebreaking Cutters
  • $266 million for long-range unmanned aircraft systems
  • $170 million for maritime domain awareness, including next-generation sensors
  • $162 million for three Waterways Commerce Cutters

The future 360-foot Offshore Patrol Cutter Argus in launch position. Nine sisterships are funded under the OBBB, at about $478 million a pop. Photo: Eastern Shipbuilding Group.