Some comments on the possibility of ice strengthened patrol cutters from Naval News. Bottom line, nothing in the foreseeable future.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog
Some comments on the possibility of ice strengthened patrol cutters from Naval News. Bottom line, nothing in the foreseeable future.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
Having a few ice strengthened cutters that can safely patrol close to the ice pack only makes sense
Interesting that Schultz mentioned the relative possibility of ice-stregthened OPCs further down the production line. If I understand correctly, the third and fourth OPCs (Ingham and Rush) are to be homeported in Kodiak…would probably make sense to have those cutters ice-strengthened if any are going to be so they could have the capability of patrolling further up north.
Changing the hull design for two vessels in the pipeline is hard to do RIGHT. And ALL change orders cost more
Every indication the two OPCs bound for Kodiak will not be ice-strengthened. None of the ships previously homeported there were specifically ice strengthened. Haley is a pretty stoutly built ship though.
Good to hear that two OPCs will head to Kodiak when they’re built. The Alex Haley is pretty old. I wonder if a NSC will replace the USS Munro in Alaska.
All the NSC homeports are accounted for, Honolulu (2), Alameda (4), and Charleston (6). The third and fourth OPC are expected to go to Kodiak. That should be 2026 and 2027. Not impossible there will be a third, but if that happens it will be much later
The OPC program is glacial slow at least 2 OPC (better 3) should be under construction every year is there any hope for this? because the actual ships are mummies!
mummies look at 210s like didn’t i meet you at the pharoe’s coranation party?. 270s are their ankle biter kids. i did a 270 tour and loved it but the ships were pretty much old while being built.
I was in HQ when the 270s were being planned. They replaced both the 327s and some old seagoing tug and submarine rescue vessel type MECs. The Mk75 gun and Mk92 fire control systems were a big improvement, but hull and machinery were in many ways less capable than the ships they replaced, actually slower than the 327s and much less seaworthy. Less seaworthy and robust than the 205s and 213s. Ultimately they stopped building 270s before all the WWII vintage ships had been replaced. Did a post on this back in 2011. https://chuckhillscgblog.net/2011/01/05/how-we-got-in-this-mess-a-short-history-of-cg-shipbuilding/