Eastern Shipbuilding Group, Inc. of Panama City, Fla. announced it has been selected as one of the three finalists to design the United States Coast Guard’s new Offshore Patrol Cutters (OPC). In accordance with the terms of the $22 million dollar Phase I finalist award cap, Eastern said it will spend the next 18 months finalizing the engineering and ship design in order to become the final shipyard selected to build the first OPC. The OPC fleet is expected to total 25 Cutters, while the initial contract is for up to 11 Cutters.