OPC “Placemat”
The Acquisitions Directorate, CG-9, has issued a draft statement of work for Offshore Patrol Cutter Program Industry Studies.
The deadline for comments is short.
A draft statement of work (SOW) was released by the Coast Guard Nov. 22 in support of the Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC) Program. The service is seeking industry feedback; responses to the draft SOW will be used to inform a future solicitation for industry studies to support OPC follow-on production.
The draft SOW can be found here.
The deadline to submit responses to this request is Dec. 6 at noon EST.
For more information: Offshore Patrol Cutter program page
Looking at the draft statement of work, one of the first things I noticed is that it describes the OPC as “360ft LOA and 4500LT.” I think that displacement should be full load. Even at that, it is significantly larger than previously stated. I had previously noted that dimensions and displacement did not seem to correspond, that the dimension for the OPC was larger than the Holland class OPV which are 3750 tons full load, but previous statements indicated that the ships would be 3730 tons full load. This was repeated in the Congressional Research Service Reports. If their full load displacement is actually 4500 tons, that means they are almost exactly the same size as the National Security Cutters which have been variously reported as 4500 or 4600 tons full load.
The draft SOW indicates, “The re-competed contract scope will be to complete the OPC Detail Design and to construct an initial OPC using that Detail Design, with options for constructing up to 10 additional OPCs.”
Section 2.2.2.2 does at least mention the possibility of a block buy.
“The impact of block buys of OPCs as a cost reduction strategy shall be addressed in this section.”
The draft SOW states:
“References Available at Award. The following references will be made available not later than award of the Industry Studies contract.
1. Updated draft OPC System Specification
2. List of Long Lead Time Materials (LLTM)
3. Selected Detail Design Deliverables for information only, including Functional Design artifacts, ABS design review information, Transitional (3D) Design artifacts, Production Design artifacts, Schedules, Test Procedures, and Test Reports. The maturity of the Functional Design artifacts exceeds 95%.
4. Selected Construction Deliverables for information only, including: Equipment Configuration List, Test results, Engineering Change documents, and schedules
5. Selected Non-Proprietary Management Planning Deliverables for information only
6. USCG Notional OPC Detail Design and Construction (DD&C) Schedule
7. Placemat summarizing OPC Functional Design “
Frankly, I don’t see how you could bid on the contract without having this information first.
The notional schedule does not appear to have changed, meaning, if followed, the contract will not be awarded until the end of FY2022, and the first ship (OPC#5) will not be delivered until near the end of FY2026 and the last ship of the class will not be delivered until near the end of FY2037, three years after the previous plan. At that time the youngest 270 would be 56 years old. We will not have fourteen OPCs to replace the 210s until 2032, by which time the youngest 210 will be 63 years old. This is starting to look ridiculous, but it does looks like there may be some flexibility.
“Contractors will evaluate the referenced design artifacts and propose their most cost effective and schedule efficient plan to transition the Functional Design into a Production Design and to construct OPCs per the contract scope described above. “
This has to be very frustrating. We already went through a year of proposal evaluations, a year of competing preliminary designs, and a year of detail design, and now it looks like we are starting over almost from ground zero.
I anticipate these ships are going to cost considerably more than the original Eastern contract or the original benchmark cost. That, and the considerable delay, are a good argument for funding a 12th NSC in FY2020.
Hopefully the contractors would offer options that would depart from the notional timeline and allow earlier completion of the program as a cost reduction strategy.
On the other hand, if we are going to take this much time, maybe we could make the ship a bit faster and better armed, since it appears we are firmly back in the great power competition mode.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
“Frankly, I don’t see how you could bid on the contract without having this information first.”
Not new in Coast Guard History.. Six schooners were built in the Great Lakes during the 1850s. The criticism was at that time the hulls were designed around a sail plan rather than the other way round. The schooner were not successful.
Let’s hope they keep building NSCs until the OPCs are under construction.
Wow! With that timetable Diligence, my old boat, will be 62 years old. Hope that early 90’s Refurbishment holds up.
And that is why we should continue to build NSCs until the OPCs are ready to go. With the age of CG assets being what it is, it is imperative the recapitalisation of the fleet continue using the means at hand.
Is the OPC quoted displacement 4,500 tons realistic, my limited understanding FWIW
Calculation for displacement – Length x Beam x Depth x Cb (Block Coefficient – Burkes 0.5, passenger cruisers 0.65, oil tanker 0.8). Note L & B should be measured at waterline, figures not available so using overall figures and taking 95% to give a ROM
Big assumption Holland class displacement quoted is the ship’s naval architectural limit not to be exceeded/EOL, Navy standard for surface combatants was 110% of the original FLD for new class to allow for normal 10% in life growth.
Holland OPV class displacement quoted as~ 3,750 metric tons,
108.4 x 16 x 4.55 x 0.5 = 3,946 x 0.95 = 3,749 tons
OPC, now quoted at 4,500 tons
109.7 (360′) x 16.5 (54′) x 5.2 (17′) x 0.5 = 4,706 x 0.95 = 4,471 tons
Noticeable the deeper draft of the OPC at 17′ verse Holland 14’11”, presume OPC has a higher V Line (V-Line is the level up to which watertight structure is required, ensuring that internal bulkheads do not fail due to water pressure in the damage condition ensuring survivability, a cost driver both during build and through life).
If CG specifying the Navy 10% allowance built in for future service life growth that would suggest that the OPC FLD on delivery would be ~ 4,100t, and if remember correctly near your original estimate, so the 4,500 ton OPC displacement quoted in the Coast Guard draft statement of work maybe correct.
PS – NSC – 127.4 (418′) x 16.5 (54′) x 6.9 (22.5′) x 0.5 = 6,813 x 0.95 = 6,472 ~ 6,500 ton ship at EOL.
Correction, figure for NSC should be nearer ~ 6,900 ton EOL ship, looks high, guessing the ROM 0.95 too high, to improve accuracy of calc for the waterplane area we need actual NSC length and beam figures between the perpendiculars and hull’s actual block coefficient, don’t know source for those figures.
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From CG-9:
The Coast Guard released a draft request for proposal (RFP) for industry studies Dec. 4 to support offshore patrol cutter (OPC) follow-on production. Responses to the draft industry studies RFP will be used to inform development of a final RFP, which is scheduled for release before the end of calendar year 2019.
Today’s action complements the release of the Coast Guard’s draft statement of work (SOW) for OPC industry studies. The draft RFP and SOW are available at the following here.
The Coast Guard also announced that the service will host an OPC Industry Day on Dec. 11, 2019, at 9:00 a.m. EST at the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore, Maryland.
The industry day announcement can be found at the following here.
An RSVP is required to attend. Attendees must RSVP no later than 12:00 p.m. Monday, Dec. 9, 2019. Please see the industry day announcement for detailed RSVP instructions and location information.
The Coast Guard’s overall goal for the OPC Industry Day is to refresh awareness and understanding of industry capabilities and provide an opportunity for potential offerors to gain insight into OPC industry studies and other follow-on acquisition activities. The industry studies draft RFP will be a focal point of the industry day event; attendees are strongly encouraged to review the contents of the draft RFP and come prepared to discuss it with Coast Guard officials.
For more information: Offshore Patrol Cutter program page