BATH, Maine — Maine's Bath Iron Works is preparing to submit its bid for a contract to build Coast Guard cutters.
The deadline is Tuesday for bids from the Maine shipyard and two competitors— Bollinger Shipyards in Louisiana and Eastern Shipbuilding in Florida —for a contract that could be worth up to $10 billion.
Bath Iron Works hasn't built a Coast Guard vessel since the 1930s.
The contract is important as the General Dynamics subsidiary seeks to stabilize its workforce amid U.S. Navy cutbacks.
The shipyard's largest union adopted a new contract in December with a goal of cutting costs and becoming more efficient to produce a more competitive bid for the Coast Guard contract.
![](http://images04.military.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail_large/public/2024-11/1time%20cher%20uss%20missouri%201200.jpg?itok=qi9yyMAM "Cher's more formal look in her 1989 music video, "If I Could Turn Back Time," filmed aboard the battleship USS Missouri. (Criteron Studios)")
