USCGC Pickering Artist rendering starboard quarter. Credit: Austal
Below is a Coast Guard news release. Good to see progress on the Austal portion of the OPC program.
U.S. Coast Guard authenticates keel for offshore patrol cutter Pickering
WASHINGTON — The Coast Guard authenticated the keel for the future Coast Guard Cutter Pickering during a ceremony Monday in Mobile, Alabama.
Keel authentication is a time-honored shipbuilding tradition marking the formal start of a vessel’s construction. During the ceremony, the sponsor’s initials are applied to a ceremonial keel plate that will be installed on the cutter, symbolically indicating the keel is “truly and fairly laid.”
Adm. Kevin Lunday, acting commandant of the Coast Guard, attended the event along with Rep. Mike Ezell of Mississippi, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation; Michelle Kruger, president of Austal USA; and more than 100 guests.
“This event highlights the progress made towards delivering this much-needed asset to the nation,” said Rear Adm. Chad Jacoby, deputy commandant for systems and chief acquisition executive. “With OPC design and modeling activities fully complete and production underway, we are gaining speed towards recapitalization of our medium endurance fleet.”
Ravi Khamsourin, an advanced welder with Austal USA, placed the initials of the sponsor, Dr. Meghan Pickering Seymour, on the ceremonial keel plate. Pickering Seymour is Pickering’s great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter.
Pickering is named after a revenue cutter built in 1798 that bore the same name. The vessel was named in honor of Timothy Pickering, the second secretary of war. Pickering fought in the American Revolution as a colonel and served as adjutant general of Gen. George Washington’s army in 1777. He later served as secretary of state, a U.S. senator and a member of the House of Representatives from Massachusetts. He advocated for construction of the first frigates built to enforce tariff and trade laws and prevent smuggling.
Pickering will be the third Coast Guard vessel to carry the name. In addition to the original revenue cutter Pickering, the Coast Guard operated a concrete-hull floating base bearing the name Pickering during the 1920s.
The OPC acquisition program addresses the Coast Guard’s long-term need for cutters capable of deploying independently or as part of task groups. The cutters provide essential capability for the Coast Guard to control, secure and defend U.S. borders and maritime approaches, facilitate maritime commerce vital to economic security and strategic mobility, and respond to contingencies. Acquisition of 25 OPCs will complement the service’s national security cutters, fast response cutters and polar security cutters as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s layered security strategy.
Delivery of Pickering is scheduled for 2027.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
I have much more confidence in Austal USA than I had in Eastern Shipbuilding Group. When they say they will deliver by 2027, I believe them, as they understand serial production.
Now to pick nits: I hate the position of that centerline Mk38 over the hangar, as it has a very limited field of fire due to the satcom antennas on either side. A much more sensible location would be on a platform adjacent to the hangar, over the main deck, allowing each to have virtually a 180 degree field of fire. Maybe position a SeaRAM launcher in the centerline position in the future.
Concur both on the greater confidence in Austal and in concern about the location of the Mk38.
Would probably be good idea to mount SeaRAM as it is taller and probably can loft the round above the obstacles.
Still need to find a place to put Mk38s, preferably two of them with 360 degree coverage.
Well, at least this is a start. They can add platforms and Mk38s later, swap out the centerline Mk38 for the SeaRAM later. Let’s just get these hulls in the water. The first 2 from ESG are rusting before they even get used.
Yes we need to get one in the water and tested as soon possible..
One of the few things I like about the Littoral Combat Ships (LSC) is the way they mounted two 30mm guns in elevated turrets (which resemble tank turrets in the eyes of this veteran tanker) overlooking the hangar, as you can see in the photo here, along with a 21-cell RAM launcher:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/USS-Freedom-rear-130222-N-DR144-367.jpg
You can get a closer look at one of the same 30mm gun turrets in action in this photo of the San Antonio Class amphibious transport ships, which use the same turreted mount for the 30mm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mk44_Bushmaster_II#/media/File:The_amphibious_transport_dock_ship_USS_Green_Bay_(LPD_20)_fires_a_MK-46_30mm_gun_during_a_live-fire_exercise_(28540439144).jpg
We should have gone with Austal USA in the first place.
Don’t forget that would have entailed an entirely different ship.
No Austal was not one of the original bidders.
I stand corrected. You are right. Explains why I couldn’t find a concept. I looked through your past OPC thread as I think it got covered at one point, but I couldn’t find it.
The 8:
Eastern Shipbuilding, Bollinger, Bath Iron Works, Gibbs & Cox, L3 Comms, Damen, STX Marine, and Northrop Grumman (HII)
Except I know that list isn’t right either as Vigor was one of the bidders as was VT Halter. Damen was teamed with Bollinger and Naval Group (prior name?) with VT Halter.
This might be the earlier post mentioning bidders for the OPC that Andy was looking for.
The Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC), the Other LCS
https://chuckhillscgblog.net/2013/12/04/offshore-patrol-cutters-opc-the-other-lcs/
too many people couldn’t wrap their collective heads around the premise that Austral USA and Austral Shipbuilders of Australia were even capable of constructing a ship that wasn’t constructed using an all aluminum hull, forgetting that both the “Guardian”-class Patrol Boats and “Cape”-class PBs used by the Royal Australian Navy were constructed with steel hulls…
Did Austal even bid? I don’t recall. Weren’t they focusing exclusively on aluminum ships (in the USA) at that time?
I have high hopes for this program now. I look forward to seeing these ships in the water.
Like many others, I’d like to see SeaRam on these ships. In the age of drone attacks, reasonable defence against air attack seems prudent.
I can’t find what they proposed, but they were one of the 8 original bidders.
I think you are right in that they went with steel with Guardian, but the Capes are aluminum. You can look up construction images to validate.
You are correct in that Guardian is steel hull, but Cape are aluminum. You can find construction images.
@ Andy.
I stand corrected on the “Cape”-class, thank you…
@ jmoskalik.
For the Offshore Patrol Cutter, I don’t know whether they proposed a low ball bid to construct them! But if the USCG operates anything like the US Navy does, it doesn’t matter considering that the USCG owned the design plans for the OPC and could allocate the construction to any shipyard willing to construct them! The Arleigh Burke destroyers were designed by Bath Iron Work, any yet more then 2/3rds of them were constructed by Huntington-Ingalls Shipyards!
The EPF burrowed it design by a commercial high speed ferry ship that already existed and was constructed using marine grade aluminum, while the “Independence”-class LCS was specifically designed from the keel up to be constructed of aluminum to keep the weight down and still hit speeds above 40-kts…
Their LCS is also based off the ferry Benchajigua Express.
Actually the Coast Guard does not own Eastern’s detail design. Austal had to come up with their own detail design.
The eight original bidders were “Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, La.; Eastern Shipbuilding, Panama City, Fla.; General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine; General Dynamics Nassco, San Diego; Huntington Ingalls Industries, Pascagoula, Miss.; Marinette Marine, Marinette, Wis.; Vigor Shipyards, Seattle and VT Halter Marine, Pascagoula, Miss.”
Thanks!
Paging Chuck hill,
The commandant wants a word with you.
You need to read this and especially this paragraph because it looks like the USCG’s Legend class Cutters may have a future with the US Navy
“Phelan also recently told attendees at a private dinner that the new frigate would be a modified National Security Cutter, two sources who heard the comments told Breaking Defense. Asked about Phelan’s private comments, a Navy spokesperson deferred to the secretary’s social media posts about the new frigate and declined to comment further.
HII has been building a National Security Cutter (NSC) for the US Coast Guard. During the original frigate competition, the company proposed a modified version of that ship for what would become the Constellation class. A spokesperson for HII told Breaking Defense the company is “aware of the developments on the frigate and cannot specifically comment about the NSC.”
It looks like the US Navy is dead set on going with the USCG’s legend class cutter design.
https://breakingdefense.com/2025/12/navy-wants-new-frigate-in-2028-says-services-acquisition-head/
https://breakingdefense.com/2025/12/navy-wants-new-frigate-in-2028-says-services-acquisition-head/
Off topic: breakingdefense news says NSC to be next frigate
Yeah, it basically looks like a massive insider trading investigation at any other time in our nation’s history. Wildly inappropriate. HII stock up 30 bucks so far this week, about 10%.