National Security Cutter fires up engines

From Navy Times

National security cutter fires up engines

By Patricia Kime - Staff writer

Posted : Friday Aug 10, 2007 5:31:15 EDT

The Coast Guard fired up the engines of the national security cutter Bertholf for the first time Wednesday.

Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer 3 Walt Probst pressed the switch to start the ship’s gas turbine engines, the power source for high speed operations.

The ship is under construction at Northrop Grumman Ship System’s Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss.

The engine light-off marks another step in the vessel’s march toward sea trials, expected this fall. A Coast Guard spokesman said Wednesday the ship’s diesel engines, which round out the propulsion plant system also will be started sometime this week.

“This is a significant day for Bertholf, bringing it one step closer to self sufficiency,” said Kevin Amis, Northrop’s national security cutter program manager, in a press release.

The Bertholf is the first of eight planned Legend-class ships to be produced under the Coast Guard’s Deepwater modernization program. The 418-foot vessels will replace the current fleet of 12 378-foot Hamilton-class high endurance ships.

The Bertholf and the second ship in the class, named Waesche, have come under intense scrutiny in the past year from Congress and public watchdog groups since concerns were exposed over possible design flaws in the vessels.

The Coast Guard did not disclose to Congress that its engineers had raised concerns over the ships’ design and plan to retro-fit the Bertholf and Waesche to avoid any premature hull fatigue.

Also on Wednesday, the Coast Guard announced it had awarded a $377 million contract for the third national security cutter to Integrated Coast Guard Systems, the Northrop Grumman-Lockheed Martin joint venture that has served as Deepwater’s prime contractor since 2002.

The contract includes an agreement to resolve the contractual and technical issues on the Bertholf and Waesche.

The agreement added $255 million to resolve issues for Bertholf and Waesche, bringing the total cost of first two ships to $1.1 billion.

According to the Coast Guard, the total cost, including acquisition costs, for Bertholf stands at $641 million, for Waesche, $496 million and for NSC 3, $505 million.

In 2002, the initial contract for Bertholf was $322 million. The ship was redesigned partway through construction to meet post-Sept. 11, 2001 homeland security requirements, driving up costs. Hurricane Katrina, as well as contractor overruns and a shipyard strike, have also affected pricing.

According to the Coast Guard, Bertholf is 83 percent complete.