MOBILE, Ala. — Austal USA has began development on its third U.S. Coast Guard Heritage-class Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC), the longer term USCGC Ingham, on the firm’s Cell, Ala. ship manufacturing facility. Ingham is being constructed underneath a contract that features choices for as much as 11 cutters and has a present potential worth of $3.3 billion.
“Every new OPC transferring into manufacturing demonstrates how far our metal shipbuilding crew has come,” Austal USA President Gene Miller mentioned. “Ingham will give the Coast Guard the endurance, flexibility and offshore functionality it wants to guard our nation’s maritime pursuits. We’re dedicated to constructing a powerful, serial manufacturing program for this necessary class of cutters.”
Austal USA makes use of a modular development method designed to extend manufacturing effectivity and permit a excessive proportion of every module to be outfitted earlier than last meeting. The corporate’s engineering and manufacturing groups additionally developed an in depth 3D mannequin of the cutter early within the design course of to assist planning, coordination and development.
The OPC program will recapitalize the Coast Guard’s getting older medium endurance cutter fleet and supply a functionality bridge between the service’s nationwide safety cutters, which function within the open ocean, and quick response cutters, which function nearer to shore.
The 360-foot OPC will present nearly all of the Coast Guard’s offshore presence, conducting missions together with regulation enforcement, drug and migrant interdiction, and search and rescue. With a variety of 10,200 nautical miles at 14 knots and a 60-day endurance interval, every OPC might be able to deploying independently or as a part of a activity group and serving as a cellular command-and-control platform for surge operations corresponding to hurricane response and mass migration incidents. The cutters can even assist Arctic goals by serving to regulate and shield rising commerce and vitality exploration in Alaska.
With the beginning of Ingham, Austal USA has three OPCs underneath development: the longer term USCGC Pickering, USCGC Icarus, and USCGC Ingham. Collectively, these cutters anchor Austal USA’s rising metal shipbuilding portfolio, which additionally at present consists of development of 4 Touchdown Craft Utility vessels, three Navajo-class Towing, Salvage and Rescue Ships, an Auxiliary Floating Dry Dock Medium, and submarine modules supporting the Virginia- and Columbia-class submarine packages.
From Austal USA, Aug. 27, 2026
