
The Coast Guard on Tuesday awarded Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII] an $88.2 million contract to purchase long-lead materials for construction of the ninth National Security Cutter, one ship beyond the service’s program of record.The Coast Guard had planned to acquire eight NSCs, but Congress in FY ’16 added funding for the ninth vessel. In their respective markups of the FY ’17 Homeland Security budget, Senate appropriators added initial funds for a 10th NSC while House appropriators didn’t.A Coast Guard spokesman…