NG and Kockums to Cooperate on Composite Vessels

Released on Tuesday, May 11, 2004

The Northrop-Grumman Corporation has announced that the previous agreement with Kockums AB and its parent company Howaldtswerke Deutsche Werft AG (HDW) has been expanded aiming at revolutionary littoral warfare and other missions capabilities for the US Coast Guard.

The new pact allows further sharing of composite shipbuilding technologies for corvette-sized monohull ships. It also includes a new technology transfer license agreement and cooperative work in the design and construction of the lead ship demonstrator of Deepwater's Fast Response Cutter (FRC).

The FRC is a 150-ft (46 meters) long fast patrol boat intended as a replacement for aging fleet of US Coast Guard Island-class boats.

The original agreement between Northrop-Grumman and Kockums, signed in October 2002, covers design, development, construction and sale of Visby-class corvettes or derivative ships to the United States and allied nations through the US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.

The FRC ship built in composites will be able to meet or exceed the US Coast Guard requirements in terms of stealth, speed, modularity and survivability characteristics.