Fairbanks Morse Builds Engines for USCG Offshore Patrol Cutter

Fairbanks Morse has built and tested a pair of main propulsion diesel engines that will power the first offshore patrol cutter Eastern Shipbuilding Group is constructing for the U.S. Coast Guard.

Each FM | MAN 16V 28/33D STC engine is designed to operate at a rate of 9,763 brake-horsepower and run at 1K revolutions per minute, Fairbanks Morse said Thursday.

Eastern Shipbuilding asked the engine maker to provide the machines for the Coast Guard's first two OPC vessels and laid the keel for the first cutter in late April.

Delivery of the engines is scheduled to take place within this month.

The future Coast Guard cutters are designed to function as a mobile command-and-control platform for surge operations and support Arctic objectives as well as defense and homeland missions.

Eighty percent of U.S. Navy ships with medium-speed power use Fairbanks Morse-built motors, the company noted.