PASCAGOULA, Miss., April 2, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE:NOC) Ship Systems sector has been awarded two Deepwater contracts totaling $129 million for the detail design and long lead material procurement for the U.S. Coast Guard's first new National Security Cutter (NSC).
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The combined contracts mark the first step in the development and delivery of this new class of cutters set to replace the Coast Guard's aging fleet of surface vessels.
Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS) awarded the contracts under the Coast Guard's Integrated Deepwater System Program. ICGS, the prime contractor for the program, is a co-equal partnership of Northrop Grumman Ship Systems and Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT).
"We are extremely pleased with this announcement, as it supports our design effort in the U.S. Coast Guard's Deepwater Program," said Dr. Philip A. Dur, Northrop Grumman corporate vice president and president of the company's Ship Systems sector. "These contracts will provide the means necessary to produce a detailed design and allow us to purchase long lead materials for the first ship."
The detail design effort will be conducted at the New Orleans Engineering Center of Excellence, where the NSC's preliminary and contract design phase was recently completed. Fabrication of the first new NSC is planned to begin in mid-2004, with ship delivery scheduled in 2006.
Deepwater is the largest recapitalization effort in the Coast Guard's 200-year history. The Integrated Deepwater System is a critical multi-year program to modernize and replace aging ships and aircraft, and improve communications, command and control, and logistics systems. This contract was awarded in June 2002 and is estimated to total $17 billion over the life of the program.
"Now more than ever, the Coast Guard needs a modern force of National Security Cutters to defend our interests against those who would threaten the security of our homeland," Dur said. "The U.S. Coast Guard needs new cutters with enhanced capability for all the traditional missions of drug interdiction, maritime law enforcement, and search and rescue operations, as well as the heightened emphasis on homeland security, to push our borders farther offshore. Northrop Grumman Ship Systems is proud to have the opportunity to engage our engineers and craftsmen in building this next generation of cutters for the national fleet."
Northrop Grumman's Ship Systems Sector includes primary operations in Pascagoula and Gulfport, Miss.; and in New Orleans and Tallulah, La., as well as in a network of fleet support offices in the U.S. and Japan. Ship Systems, which currently employs more than 17,000 shipbuilding professionals, primarily in Mississippi and Louisiana, is one of the nation's leading full service systems companies for the design, engineering, construction, and life cycle support of major surface ships for the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard and
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