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New Coast Guard ship gets good notices

The Coast Guard’s top weapon buyer lauded shipbuilders Tuesday for the job done on the second National Security Cutter, delivered last week from Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding.

“We’re really pleased with the work done by the shipbuilder and the subcontractors,” Rear Adm. Ron Rabago, chief of the acquisition directorate, told reporters. “The quality of the workmanship has improved. And the quality of the ship and systems showed that we’ve taken lessons learned from Bertholf and put these into the Waesche.”

The service took preliminary delivery of the Waesche on Nov. 6 at Northrop’s shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. By late February, the new ship is expected to join the Bertholf, first of the new cutters, at their homeport of Alameda, Calif.

Rabago noted that the Waesche improved on the Bertholf — initially delivered in May 2008 — in the key area of “starred cards,” or deficiencies that could affect mission performance. Eight starred cards were handed to the Bertholf during her acceptance trials, but inspectors from the Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey found only three such problems on the Waesche.

“We’re very much pleased with the number of starred cards,” Rabago said. “Almost every system scored better.”

Because of criticisms of the program, the Coast Guard in 2008 took the unusual step of publicly releasing the Bertholf’s INSURV report. Since then, however, the Navy changed its policy and now considers those reports classified, and the Coast Guard decided not to release the Waesche’s INSURV.

The service did, however, report last month that the INSURV said the Waesche presented a “very clean and capable platform” that met or exceeded readiness expectations.

Rabago said the improvement in noted deficiencies on the Waesche was notable, since “many of the (INSURV) folks on Waesche were on Bertholf, so they knew where to look. That we ended up with a reduced number of trials cards is an indication of the quality and completeness of the ship.”

Work to complete and certify for operation the new cutter’s complex command-and-control suite, known as TEMPEST assurance, also will be finished significantly sooner than on the Bertholf. That work, which includes requirements for the Navy to install and certify equipment, took about 18 months on the Bertholf. That same work will be done in about eight months on the Waesche.

“That’s what we expected to see and we’re pleased to see that’s where we ended up,” Rabago said.

The third ship in the class, the Stratton, is nearly 30 percent complete, Rabago said, with that ship’s christening by First Lady Michelle Obama set for next summer.

Construction of the ships is done in modular “grand blocks,” which are then assembled to become a complete ship. Rabago noted that the Stratton will use fewer grand blocks than its predecessors.

“Most of the grand blocks will be assembled by the end of this calendar year, and the masts will complete the erection of the ship,” Rabago said. “She is tracking well. The quality of work looks good.”

The service also expects later this month to receive Northrop’s proposal to build the fourth NSC, the Hamilton, and will then begin contract negotiations.

The Fast Response Cutter program with Bollinger Shipyards also is moving ahead, Rabago said, with a critical design review slated for mid-November.

“The meeting next week will be a formal review with the shipbuilder,” he said. “We’ll provide guidance back to the shipbuilder and the shipbuilders will begin ordering materials. That’s an important milestone.”

Construction of the FRC, named Sentinel, is expected to begin early next year, with contract delivery still scheduled for January 2011.

Rabago also noted continued progress in the service’s acquisition of small Response Boat Medium patrol boats, and on its work to develop unmanned aerial vehicles. The Coast Guard is looking at co-developing a long-endurance Predator-B UAV with its Department of Homeland Security brethren in the Customs and Border Protection service, and is set to conduct cutter tests next year using a Fire Scout UAV, also being developed by the Navy.

Work to install and accept systems upgrades for the Rescue 21 “maritime 911” coastal monitoring system also is continuing, Rabago said, with 22 of 39 sectors on line, covering about 30,000 miles of coastline.