Shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII 0.16%) will build a sixth National Security Cutter (NSC) for the U.S. Coast Guard, Huntington announced Wednesday.
The contract to build the cutter, dubbed the Munro, is worth $487 million to Newport News, Va.-based Huntington.
The Munro and her sister ships are designed to serve as the "flagships" of the Coast Guard's cutter fleet, replacing the 378-foot Hamilton-class cutters that have been in service since the 1960s. So far, Huntington has built three of the new NSC vessels, is about 40% through construction of a fourth, and 17% through a fifth. At 418 feet in length, and weighing 4,500 tons, the NSCs boast top speeds of 28 knots, a range of 12,000 miles, and mission endurance of 60 days.
Huntington, which builds, integrates, and tests NSC hulls and mechanical and electrical systems, cooperates with Lockheed Martin (LMT 0.18%) -- responsible for command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems -- in the ships' construction.
