About a year later than planned, the Coast Guard at the end of November awarded Northrop Grumman [NOC] a $480.1 million contract to construct and deliver the fourth Legend-class National Security Cutter (NSC), the 418-foot Hamilton (WMLS-753). The contract contains options to negotiate awards for long-lead materials for NSCs five and six as well as production for NSC 5. The Hamilton is slated to be delivered in the first quarter of FY ’15, about three years later than the third NSC, the Stratton, which is 65 percent complete and expected to be delivered in the latter half of 2011. The Coast Guard had originally hoped to get the Hamilton under contract last fall but didn’t get the Request for Proposals out until Nov. 2009. Then the service had hoped to get the cutter under contract by this past summer. Some of the delays were due to transitioning the contract from Integrated Coast Guard Systems, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Northrop Grumman that was the lead integrator for the Coast Guard’s asset recapitalization effort, to a sole-source arrangement with Northrop Grumman. The Hamilton is the first NSC to be awarded directly to Northrop Grumman. Other reasons for the delay included synching the build rates at Northrop Grumman’s Pascagoula, Miss., shipyard with the Navy, and negotiating the options to make contracting for the fifth and sixth vessels easier. The Coast Guard is currently operating its first two NSCs, the Bertholf and the Waesche. The service plans to have Northrop Grumman build eight NSCs to replace the fleet of 12 378-foot Hamilton-class High Endurance Cutters.
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