The Acquisition Directorate (CG-9) has announce release of the Request for Proposal for the phase one of the Offshore Patrol Cutter Procurement.http://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg9/newsroom/updates/opc092512.asp
“This is the final Request for Proposal (RFP) for the United States Coast Guard’s requirement for Preliminary & Contract Design (P&CD), Detail Design (DD), and construction of up to 11 Offshore Patrol Cutters (OPC).”
Responses are due by 10 January, 2013.
CG-9 listed eight interested shipyards as of July 2012. These included Bath Iron Works, Bollinger, Eastern Shipbuilding, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Marinette Marine, NASSCO, Vigor shipyards, and VT Halter Marine.
My last update on the status of the project which goes into some depth can be found here.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
Tim Colton’s Maritime Memos has some interesting and favorable comments on the procurement strategy for the OPCs. You can check it out here: http://www.coltoncompany.com/
I am surprise that Blohm + voss and Damen didn’t make the list
At this point we do not know. They may be partnered with one of the American Shipyards on the list. An American yard has to be in the lead, since it will be made in the US.
It is absolutely ridiculous to let Bollinger bid. They purposefully designed boats with weak hulls to save money on steal and hid that fact by falsifying design calculations. That is fraud. That is fraud post 9/11 that could have gotten someone killed. Not only has Bollinger not taken responsibility they blamed the CG for the issue by saying they abused the 110s.
Worse yet is how our government rolls over. Yes you are innocent until proven guilty. However there are quality and other clauses in the contract and former contract that allow debarment.
We need another tool since the False Claim process takes so long. The DoJ should be able to hold a gran jury that decides if there is enough evidence to suspend all contracts until the issues are cleared up. That would HIGHLY motivate closure.
As for the approach. Holding off award on some and competing future ships only works IF you actually allow for a competition. So far NONE of that has actually occurred regarding the FRCs.
I guess moving Skip Bowmen to Bollinger and making him the liaison to the USCG has paid off big time? As has the CG going way to far out of their way to cover up their activities in all of this – thereby letting Bollinger off the hook. Admiral Papp stating it was the DoJs idea NOT HIS to go after Bollinger for the 123s clearly demonstrates that.
Like I have said before I have no issue with the blue collar folks in Louisiana getting more work. But that should only happen if their leadership is held accountable.
VT Halter Marine Partners with DCNS to Offer OPC Solution for U.S. Coast Guard
http://www.navyrecognition.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=637