The U.S. Coast Guard's, 140-ft. fast-response cutter has reached a systems
requirements milestone resulting in the ship being one step closer to
construction commencement.
The fast-response cutter is being built by Integrated Coast
Guard Systems (ICGS), a joint venture between Northrop Grumman
Corporation (NYSE: NOC) and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), under the
Integrated Deepwater System Program.
The purpose of the systems requirements review was to present
the ship concept to the Coast Guard and to confirm the customer
requirements have been sufficiently developed, so the ICGS team can
proceed to design development.
The new cutter has been developed to meet post-Sept. 11 mission
requirements. The new composite-hulled craft, to be manufactured at
Northrop Grumman's Gulfport, Miss., composites center, will have a
40-year hull-life.
The cutter will be interoperable with other Deepwater assets
and will operate at 30+ knots, providing exceptional response and
reaction capability. Typical missions will include near-shore fisheries
patrol, migrant and drug interdiction, barrier patrols and augmenting
patrols in areas of concern.
"We are facing very aggressive schedule goals for this
program," said Mike Duthu, Northrop Grumman Fast-Response Cutter
program manager. "To meet specific homeland security defense needs, the
program has been accelerated by nearly 10 years from what was
originally proposed at the time of contract award in June 2002. During
the execution of each phase, we will have a Northrop Grumman team
continually planning, scoping and proposing the next phase to achieve
program milestones."
The systems requirements review, held at Northrop Grumman Ship
Systems sector's shipyard in New Orleans, included demonstrations on
the fast-response cutter's hull, mechanical and electrical design, the
Command, Control, Communications and Computers, Intelligence,
Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) suite and logistics support.
ICGS also presented information on the ship's preliminary operational
plans as an asset in the Integrated Deepwater System.
As a result of the systems requirements review process, the
Fast-Response Cutter program now moves into the preliminary design
phase, with the customer review scheduled for this August.