“Coast Guard, Eastern Shipbuilding Negotiating ‘Contract Resolution’ on First 2 Offshore Patrol Cutters” –USNI

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Eastern Shipbuilding, Argus and Chase building. June 2021.

US Naval Institute reports, “Coast Guard, Eastern Shipbuilding Negotiating ‘Contract Resolution’ on First 2 Offshore Patrol Cutters.”

The post includes the following statement,

According to Coast Guard budget documents, Argus and Chase are set to deliver this year, though its unclear how complete the cutters are.

I will go out on a limb and state there is not a chance in hell of Argus and Chase being delivered this year. I have been told that Argus was actually launched prematurely (October 2023) to quiet questions about progress on the program. I don’t believe Argus has ever gotten underway.  There have been no reports of it conducting sea trials. Apparently Chase has not even been launched yet.

Eastern did spend some money to improve their facilities in 2024, but providing 1,000 linear feet of additional bulkhead and berthing space and lengthening the launch facility from 380 to 500 feet, did not seem to be aimed at speeding up OPC construction.

This was in contrast to what we have seen from Austal. From Austal’s website 2024,

“Through continual capital investments, over $500 million to date, Austal USA has expanded its capability and capacity to enable concurrent production of aluminum and steel ships. The company recently broke ground on a new assembly building which will provide 192,000 square feet of new covered manufacturing space.  The building will consist of three bays, two of which will be sized specifically to erect the OPC.”

Eastern did not assemble their OPCs in a building.

Eastern Shipbuilding Group was contracted to build the first four offshore patrol cutters. The first ship, Argus, was expected to be delivered by the end of 2022. (Eastern Shipbuilding Group photo)

“The ongoing talks come as Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) has put a hold on all Coast Guard promotions over questions on shipbuilding contracting and lack of information from the service, Scott’s office confirmed to USNI News late last week. In a statement, Scott said the hold was the result of 18 months of unanswered questions over the status of Coast Guard contracting that includes the status of Argus and Chase.”

Despite Scott’s statement, “I don’t care what that resolution looks like, we just need a resolution.” To me that sounds an awful like putting a thumb on the scales of any negotiations between Eastern and the Coast Guard, putting pressure on the Coast Guard to meet Eastern’s demands.

To put things in perspective, this is the sequence of events:

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