Austal USA has begun development on the long run USCGC Ingham, the third U.S. Coast Guard Heritage-class offshore patrol cutter to be constructed on the shipyard’s Cellular, Ala., facility. Firm and Coast Guard OPC program representatives marked the milestone at a ceremony introduced Aug. 27.

Austal USA has begun development on the long run USCGC Ingham (WMSM-917), the third U.S. Coast Guard Heritage-class offshore patrol cutter (OPC) to be constructed on the shipyard’s Cellular, Ala., facility. Firm and Coast Guard OPC program representatives marked the milestone at a ceremony introduced Aug. 27.

The cutter is being constructed beneath a contract that carries choices for as much as 11 hulls and a present potential worth of $3.3 billion. The Coast Guard awarded Austal the OPC Stage 2 contract in 2022, protecting hulls 5 by means of 15.

“Every new OPC transferring into manufacturing demonstrates how far our metal shipbuilding crew has come,” Austal USA President Gene Miller stated in an announcement. “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 robust, serial manufacturing program for this necessary class of cutters.”

Austal builds the cutters in modules, outfitting a excessive share of every block earlier than closing 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 sequencing.

The 360′ OPCs are supposed to recapitalize the Coast Guard’s ageing medium-endurance cutter fleet and bridge the hole between the service’s nationwide safety cutters, which work the open ocean, and quick response cutters, which function nearer to shore. The category is slated to interchange the Sixties-era 210′ Reliance-class and Nineteen Eighties-era 270′ Well-known-class WMECs.

The design relies on Vard Marine‘s VARD 7 110 offshore patrol vessel design. Every cutter could have a variety of 10,200 nautical miles at 14 knots and a 60-day endurance interval. The OPCs will deal with regulation enforcement, drug and migrant interdiction, and search and rescue, and might deploy independently or with a process group as a cellular command-and-control platform for surge operations reminiscent of hurricane response and mass migration occasions. The cutters are additionally anticipated to assist Coast Guard Arctic targets tied to rising commerce and vitality exploration off Alaska. The Ingham is slated to be homeported in Kodiak, Alaska.

With Ingham beneath development, Austal has three OPCs in manufacturing alongside the long run USCGC Pickering and USCGC Icarus. Development on Pickering, this system’s fifth hull, started in August 2024, with the keel authenticated in December 2025 and supply scheduled for 2027. Icarus entered manufacturing in August 2025.

The three cutters sit inside a metal shipbuilding backlog at Cellular that additionally contains 4 Touchdown Craft Utility vessels, three Navajo-class towing, salvage and rescue ships, an Auxiliary Floating Dry Dock Medium, and submarine modules for the Virginia- and Columbia-class applications.

The identify Ingham and hull quantity WMSM-917 had been initially assigned to Jap Shipbuilding Group‘s third OPC in Panama Metropolis, Fla.; the Division of Homeland Safety terminated the orders for that hull and for the fourth, Rush (WMSM-918), in July 2025.

Jap Shipbuilding suspended work on the OPC program in November 2025, citing monetary pressure, and the Coast Guard confirmed in June 2026 that it had reached an settlement to shut out the Stage 1 contract. The primary two cutters, Argus and Chase, had been left unfinished; Coast Guard fiscal 2027 finances paperwork had listed each for supply this 12 months.

The Coast Guard plans a category of 25 OPCs at an estimated price of roughly $17 billion and has known as this system its high acquisition precedence. In a November 2025 report, the Authorities Accountability Workplace warned that Austal, like Jap earlier than it, began development earlier than the design was secure.