INGALLS GETS FUNDING FOR 7th SECURITY CUTTER | Thad Cochran for Mississippi

Apr

INGALLS GETS FUNDING FOR 7th SECURITY CUTTER BY thadforms

Ingalls Shipyard will get a $497 million military shipbuilding contract award to construct the seventh National Security Cutter for the U.S. Coast Guard, it was announced Monday.

U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., said the Department of Homeland Security is amending an existing contract with Ingalls to provide FY2014 appropriations to build NSC 7.

“We have a hot production line with this class of ships, and we continue to get better — a tangible result demonstrating the value of serial production,” said Ingalls NSC Program Manager Jim French. “Each ship is built more effectively and more affordably than the one before it, and this is due to the hard work of our shipbuilders who are implementing efficient build plans and bringing our learning curve down as each ship is delivered. We look forward to starting construction on this ship in January 2015.”

U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo, R-4, also welcomed the news.

“These extremely versatile, high-value ships are employed by the U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Defense, and law enforcement agencies. Each of these cutters bear the proud mark of Mississippi’s world-class workforce which continues to deliver these ships on-time and on-budget,” Palazzo said in a release from his office. “We worked hard to ensure this year’s budget included funding for both the seventh and eighth National Security Cutters.”

Ingalls has delivered the first three NSCs and has three more under construction. Hamilton (WMSL 753) is 81 percent complete and will deliver in the third quarter of 2014; James (WMSL 754) is 52 percent complete and will launch in April, and the sixth NSC (WMSL 755) began construction late last year and is scheduled for launch in the fourth quarter of 2015.

The seventh ship, WMSL 756, is scheduled for delivery in 2018.

Cochran serves on the Senate appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security.

Legend-class NSCs are the flagships of the Coast Guard’s cutter fleet.

Designed to replace the 378-foot Hamilton-class high-endurance cutters that entered service during the 1960s, they are 418 feet long with a 54-foot beam and displace 4,500 tons with a full load. They have a top speed of 28 knots, a range of 12,000 miles, an endurance of 60 days and a crew of 110.