Bollinger Shipyards to build four additional FRCs for Coast Guard
The President of the United States signed into law the omnibus spending bill for Fiscal Year 2021, which included funding for four more Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutters (FRC), allowing Bollinger to build and deliver four more FRCs to the United States Coast Guard. This increases the total number of funded boats to 64, Bollinger Shipyards said in a press release.
“It’s a great honor to have the confidence of the U.S. Congress to continue the work we’re doing in support of the U.S. Coast Guard,” said Bollinger Shipyards President & CEO Ben Bordelon. “The Fast Response Cutter program is something we’re all proud of here in Louisiana. Delivering vessels on schedule and on budget to the Coast Guard during these challenging times shows the determination and resiliency of our workforce.”
A Chinese destroyer, the Lanzhou, pulls in front of the destroyer USS Decatur in the South China Sea. China claims much of the sea and the resources below, but the US, its allies, and an international tribunal have all rejected the Chinese claim.
For decades, China has deployed its fishing fleet – the largest in the world – as a maritime militia, systematically asserting and expanding Beijing’s influence throughout the Indo-Pacific.
The fleet routinely operates in areas where there is little to no enforcement and willfully engages in aggressive, predatory practices to intimidate lawful local fishermen, undermine maritime governance, and destabilizing the global blue economy.