GAO: Coast Guard should finish OPC designs before expanding construction

The U.S. Coast Guard should complete key design work before authorizing construction of additional Offshore Patrol Cutters, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released this week. The watchdog warned that the service risks further delays, rework and rising costs if it continues building ships before designs are stable.

The Coast Guard plans to spend more than $17 billion to acquire a fleet of 25 Offshore Patrol Cutters, or OPCs, intended to replace aging vessels that perform search and rescue, law enforcement and other critical missions. The ships are being acquired in three stages and built by two different shipyards. But GAO found that neither yard has delivered any cutters and that both began building ships with incomplete designs.

For stage 1, GAO said the first shipbuilder made “limited progress” since the its last review in 2023. Construction of OPCs 1–4 began without a stable design, leading to significant rework and delayed delivery schedules. The Coast Guard attempted to accelerate progress—such as adding milestone payments for OPC 1—but GAO found those steps were “largely unsuccessful.” As of July 2025, delivery of OPC 1 was expected to be more than five years late, and the Coast Guard had terminated construction of OPCs 3 and 4.

Stage 2 ship construction began under a second shipbuilder, which incorporated some best practices, including collaborative design reviews. Still, GAO found that construction of OPC 5 began in August 2024 without a stable design. Continuing to build additional ships under stage 2 before completing design work “increases the risk” of repeating the delays and costly rework seen in stage 1.

GAO also reported that the Coast Guard’s cost goals for the OPC program were based on outdated information and were reported as a single aggregated number rather than broken out by stage. Reporting cost goals by stage, the watchdog said, would allow better accountability for both the program and shipbuilders.

The Coast Guard plans to test whether the existing designs meet performance requirements before acquiring stage 3 ships, as required by Department of Homeland Security policy. But GAO found the service is unlikely to have those test results before starting stage 3 procurement activities, such as drafting a request for proposals.

The GAO issued four recommendations, including requiring the Coast Guard to stabilize the stage 2 design before building additional ships, establish cost goals for each acquisition stage, and document how stage 1 and 2 testing will inform stage 3 procurement. DHS concurred with two recommendations and disagreed with two; GAO said all four remain warranted.

The OPC program has been flagged by GAO as high risk since 2020 due to significant overlap between design and construction and the potential for added cost and schedule disruption.

You can read the full report HERE.

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