According to USNI News on the 19th, the United States Coast Guard said in a statement released to the media this week that it is negotiating with Eastern Shipbuilding, in order to terminate the latter’s“Offshore Patrol Cutter”(OPC) program at its shipyard in Florida.
The“OPC project” in question refers to a new generation of Heritage Class medium patrol ships being built by the United States Coast Guard. The class has a displacement of about 4,500 tons, a length of about 360 feet and a range of 1,200 nautical miles at 14 knots, it is equipped with a Bofors 57 mm MK110 naval gun, a BAE Systems 25 mm MK38 Mod 3 machine gun (with a 7.62 coaxial machine gun) and six 12.7 mm M2 Browning heavy machine guns mounted in various ways.
Rendering of heritage class patrol ship
It replaces two“Medium endurance patrol ships”, the 1,800-ton (1,830-ton) , 270-foot (82-meter)“Famous” class and the 1,127-ton (1,145-ton) , 210-foot (64.16-meter)“Reliance” class, which were built in the 1980s and 1960s.
In September 2016, Eastern Shipbuilding, based in Panama City, Fla. , won a $110.3 million contract to build the first of its“Offshore patrol ships,” with options for eight additional follow-on vessels. In 2017, the OPC program was named a heritage class, with all 11 of the first ships being named at the same time. The construction of the first ship WMSM-915“Argus” was originally scheduled to begin in late summer 2018, with delivery in August 2021, but the facility was damaged by Hurricane Michael, which hit the shipyard on Oct. 11,2018(the maximum intensity of the storm was a Category 5 hurricane) , the first plate cutting was delayed until January 2019. In 2022, the US subsidiary of another Australian Company, Austal, was awarded the detailed design and material procurement contract for the Class 5(as well as the option for ships 6 to 15) .
The first ship“Argos” built at the Eastern Shipbuilding Company was keeled on April 28,2020 and launched on October 27,2023, the ship WMSM-916 Chase laid its keel on May 17,2021(but has not yet been launched) . In November, eastern shipbuilding halted work on the two patrol ships and announced it would not proceed with the construction of ships 3 and 4. The United States Coast Guard said in a statement on Tuesday that it was discussing“Contract settlement matters” with the shipyard in OPC’s first phase, the coast guard will“Procure and deliver OPC vessels as soon as possible” to meet“National Security and Public Trust and stewardship needs for taxpayer funds.”. The United States Coast Guard budget request for fiscal year 2027 also contains more details about the program, with the document referring to the“Partial termination” of the Coast Guard’s contract with the eastern shipyards, construction of vessels 3 and 4 at the plant was cancelled and“Efforts were made to resolve” contracts for the first two patrol vessels that had been started but not yet completed.
Argos, the first ship launched at the Ea
stern Shipyard
A total of 25 opcs are estimated to cost about $17 billion, with the United States Coast Guard allocating a total of $530 million in fiscal 2025 and 2026, the report said, the amount requested in the budget request for fiscal year 2027 is $204 million. Hurricane Michael in October 2018 caused damage to Eastern’s production facilities, causing the first ship to be“Delayed until 2022”, the report said. After the Coast Guard subsequently handed over the contract rights for ship No. 5 and its successors to Ostal America, it also caused protests from eastern shipyards, but eventually reached a settlement with the Coast Guard, and announced in November 2025 that the construction of contracted vessels 3 and 4 would be cancelled. At that time, Eastern Shipbuilding CEO Joey Di Cernia issued a statement saying, the company is under enormous financial pressure due to the structure and conditions of the project, and although“The best efforts have been made”, it is not sustainable to continue in the current situation, and the project is not sustainable, thus a“Hard decision” was made to suspend the offshore patrol vessel project. Eastern shipbuilding declined to comment when contacted by USNI News this week.
The United States Coast Guard budget request for fiscal year 2027 also states that the latest plans for the Argos and Chase are for delivery this year, although it is unclear how complete the two ships will be, in addition, the first OPC, WMSM-919 Pickering, built by Austal and with a keel laid on December 82025, will be delivered next year. With regard to the first and second ships, the United States Department of homeland security issued an“Information request” last year to tow the“Argos” and“Chase” away from eastern shipbuilding, the intention may have been to take them to other shipyards for completion.
The confusion over the construction project of this type of patrol ship has also naturally caused resentment from the outside world. The Office of Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott confirmed to USNI news over the weekend that, senator Scott has suspended all coast guard promotions because of questions about shipbuilding contracts and a lack of transparency in coast guard information, the statement said that this was due to the 18-month-old status of the Coast Guard’s shipbuilding contract, particularly the status of“Argos” and“Chase” has been“Unresponsive. He said he was“Deeply concerned” about the Coast Guard’s contract-signing process, and had been asking questions about it for nearly a year and a half, but the Coast Guard had always refused to answer, the contract with eastern shipbuilding has cost taxpayers millions of dollars, and if the impasse isn’t resolved, those millions of dollars won’t be enough to build a ship. That’s a real problem, he said he wanted a“Deal that builds ships and is fair to American taxpayers”, regardless of what the“Final Solution” would be, because President Trump has previously said that the United States needs ships, needs American shipyards, and the Coast Guard also needs ships, especially some ships that are“Almost finished.” He wants to“Solve this problem as soon as possible”.
Asked by USNI News, a United States Coast Guard spokesman referred questions to the United States Department of Homeland Security. The United States Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.