U.S. Coast Guard orders more response boats from Marinette

The U.S. Coast Guard awarded a delivery order valued at approximately $24 million on September 20 to Marinette Marine Corporation, Marinette, Wis., for the production of 11 additional Response Boats-Medium (RB-M).  With the exercise of the delivery order, the Coast Guard has contracted for the production of 126 RB-Ms.

The order was conducted under an existing Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity contract with a total potential value of $461 million including all options.  The funding to support this award had originally been budgeted to cover unanticipated design or production changes; however, those costs were not realized, allowing the Coast Guard to reinvest the set-aside funds to acquire 11 more RB-Ms at no additional cost to the taxpayer.

The RB-M project has entered full-rate production, and the contractor is delivering at least 30 boats per year, which is more than one boat every two weeks.  Production is currently underway at two facilities in Green Bay, Wis., and Kent, Wash.

September 22, 2011