Clackamas, Ore.-based Oregon Iron Works operates a manufacturing facility in Vancouver at 3515 S.E. Columbia Way. It expects to have 90 employees working in Vancouver this year, said Corey Yraguen, president of the privately held company. Yraguen said he could not comment on how the federal contract would affect employment levels in Vancouver.
PORTLAND — The military’s Special Operations Command delivered a lucrative piece of news Monday to officials at Clackamas-based Oregon Iron Works.
It told the company it had won the contest to build the next generation of fast, nimble combat watercraft to be used in special military operations. While it’s yet to be seen how many boats Oregon Iron Works will build, or how quickly, the win means “a significant number” of new jobs, said Corey Yraguen, president of the privately held company, which currently employs slightly fewer than 500 people. The military values the program at $400 million.
The Special Operations Command last summer had tested prototypes built by Oregon Iron Works and United States Marine Inc. of Gulfport, Miss. Today, it informed the company and the offices of Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley that Oregon Iron Works was the winner.
“We are certainly very pleased with the result and very proud of our whole team,” said Yraguen, who singled out the work of Josh Pruzek, the company’s vice president of marine operations. Pruzek led the effort to compete for the Special Operations Command contract, officially known as the CCM Mk 1.
In the bureaucratic language of the military’s contracting operations, “The total IDIQ contract ceiling, previously announced,
remains $400,000,000, and the period of performance inclusive of all options and ordering periods is through December 2021. Funds in the amount of $17,500,290 will be obligated at this time for test article refurbishment as well as support the purchase of long lead items and low rate initial production units. The majority of the work will be performed in Clackamas, Ore.”
In 2011, Oregon Iron Works and U.S. Marine Inc. each were awarded Phase I contracts worth about $7 million to develop and build the prototypes for Special Operations Command. Monday’s announcement caps a long-running effort by Oregon Iron Works to win the final contract.
Yraguen said he was limited in what he can say about the award. He said Special Operations Command will specify later how many boats it wants and how quickly. He said he couldn’t release any photographs of the prototypes. And he shied away from a reporter’s question about whether company officials popped champagne when they got the news. He stuck to the official line: We are pleased. We are proud.
“We certainly had high confidence in the quality of the product,” he added.
Even though the initial award was made in 2011, the final contract was a long time coming. The military launched one awards process, then canceled it, refined it and relaunched it.
The military describes the boats it wants as “modern, clandestine, agile, adaptive, technically relevant, reliable, and operationally capable combatant craft.”
Defense Industry Daily said the craft will replace Naval Special Warfare Rigid Inflatable Boats. It said they will be used in a variety of roles, but especially for getting Special Operations units in and out of “low- to medium-threat environments.”
