Austal USA lays keel for USCG’s Heritage-class offshore patrol cutter

December 9, 2025, by Fatima Bahtić

Austal USA has hosted a keel laying ceremony for the first US Coast Guard (USCG) Heritage-class offshore patrol cutter (OPC) to be built at the company’s Mobile, Alabama, ship manufacturing facility.

As informed, the vessel Pickering (WMSM 919) is being built under a contract that includes up to eleven cutters and has a potential value of $3.3 billion. The US Coast Guard has executed contract options for six of the eleven cutters to date.

Ship sponsor Dr. Meghan Pickering Seymour authenticated Pickering’s keel by welding her initials onto a keel plate. Seymour is the great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Colonel Timothy Pickering, the namesake of the first USCGC Cutter Pickering launched in 1798.

The OPC program will recapitalize the US Coast Guard’s aging medium endurance cutters and provide a capability bridge between the service’s national security cutters, which operate in the open ocean, and the fast response cutters, which operate closer to shore.

“Meeting this important milestone for the Coast Guard’s Offshore Patrol Cutter program is a significant achievement that underscores our commitment to the on-time delivery of the cutters the USCG needs,” stated Austal USA President Michelle Kruger.

The OPC will conduct a variety of missions, including law enforcement, drug and migrant interdiction, and search and rescue.

With a range of 10,200 nautical miles at 14 knots and a 60-day endurance period, each OPC will be capable of deploying independently or as part of task groups, serving as a mobile command and control platform for surge operations such as hurricane response, mass migration incidents and other events.

The cutters will also support Arctic objectives by helping regulate and protect emerging commerce and energy exploration in Alaska.

Pickering is one of two US Coast Guard OPCs, and one of ten total surface vessels, under construction at Austal USA’s Alabama ship manufacturing facility.

Austal USA started construction on its second Heritage-class offshore patrol cutter (OPC), Icarus (WMSM 920), in August 2025.