BATH (AP) – Bath Iron Works plans to pursue a contract to build Coast Guard cutters and is considering bidding on a high-speed vessel that would be used by the Army and Marines, a shipyard official said.

Within a couple of weeks, the Coast Guard will be putting out a request for bids for up to 58 Coast Guard cutters as part of its effort to modernize its fleet. The fast-response cutters would be 120 to 160 feet in length.

Though much smaller than destroyers built at Bath Iron Works, the volume of ships requested by the Coast Guard would keep shipbuilders busy. Jim DeMartini, a shipyard spokesman, said the yard plans to “take a hard look” at the project.

Bath, which is owned by General Dynamics, is also considering bidding for another vessel known as the “joint high speed vessel” for the Army and Marines. The 370-foot logistics ship, powered by water jets, would carry troops, helicopters and other material.

As it stands, Defense Department plans to purchase eight of the ships, five for the Army and three for the Navy/Marines, DeMartini said.

The shipyard is scrambling to find additional work to fill a gap that’s anticipated between the end of production of Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and the construction of the next-generation DDG-1000 destroyer.

As it stands, the Navy has committed to building only seven of the DDG-1000 destroyers, and it’s unclear how construction would be divided between Bath Iron Works and Northrop Grumman’s Ingalls shipyard in Mississippi.

Both shipyards are scheduled to build one ship apiece, then the Navy will decide how to allocate the rest based on performance.

The Bath yard’s work force has dropped from 12,000 during a military buildup that started under President Reagan to about 5,800 today.

BIW’s interest in the Coast Guard project and the joint high speed vessel reflects its continuing effort to keep workers busy, DeMartini said. Those efforts include a current project in which the shipyard is assisting Maine construction firm Cianbro Corp. in converting two tankers into supply vessels for the offshore oil industry.

Mike Keenan, president of the Local S6 of the Machinists Union, said workers are anxious about the uncertain future. On Friday, 25 workers were being laid off.

“We’re more competitive than our competition, yet our waterfront barely has any ships on it. That just does not add up,” he said.

The Coast Guard cutters are part of its troubled $24 billion “deepwater project” aimed at modernizing its fleet. Eight cutters that were overhauled by Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman as part of the effort were removed from service late last year and permanently decommissioned last month because of structural problems.

The U.S. Navy in April said it was canceling a Lockheed Martin contract to build a next-generation combat ship called the Littoral Combat Ship after negotiations to control cost overruns failed.

BIW and Lockheed Martin are building separate prototypes of the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship.

Lockheed Martin was supposed to build two of the ships, but the Navy canceled the contract for its second one because of cost overruns. The Bath-built ship, under construction in Alabama, has had cost overruns but not to the same extent.

The Navy wants 55 of the ships, and Bath Iron Works would like to see some of those ships built in Bath, DeMartini said.