The Coast Guard Cutter John McCormick and crew make way to their homeport at Coast Guard Base Ketchikan in Ketchikan, Alaska, March 2017, concluding a 6,200-mile trip from Key West, Florida.
FAST RESPONSE CUTTERS: GAME-CHANGERS FOR INTERDICTION The Coast Guard’s new fast response cutters (FRCs) are just that: fast and responsive. The 154-foot FRC is a big improvement over the 110-foot patrol boat (WPB) it is replacing, and not just because it is bigger. The FRC has the same statutory missions as the 110s, performing multi-day patrols to cover the full U.S. 200mile exclusive economic zone and beyond. But size does matter. The larger FRC (354 tons compared with 168 for the WPB) carries more fuel for longer patrols and has improved sea-keeping, superior command and control, and a more capable stern-launched cutterboat than the WPB. It’s better armed, too, with four crew-served .50-caliber machine guns and a remotely operated 25 mm chain gun. “The acquisition program of record is 58 FRCs. To date, 44 are under contract and 23 are in service,” said Brian Olexy, a spokesman for the Coast Guard’s acquisition directorate. “The lead Sentinel-class fast response cutter, USCGC Bernard C. Webber, was delivered in 2012.” The FRC acquisition is being conducted via a phased acquisition approach. The first phase supported the acquisition of 32 total FRCs through periodic option awards for cutter production. The Phase II contract was awarded May 4, 2016, to Bollinger Shipyards of Lockport, Louisiana. It is based upon the design of the Phase I contract, and includes options to complete the program of record. The initial Phase II award included six FRCs (hulls 33-38) and option one of Phase II was awarded in June 2017 for six FRCs (hulls 39-44), bringing the total number of FRCs on contract to 44.
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Coast Guard OUTLOOK
The initial 18 ships were assigned to District 7 homeports, including Miami and Key West in Florida, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Follow-on cutters have been homeported in Cape May, New Jersey; Ketchikan, Alaska; and Pascagoula, Mississippi. Honolulu, Hawaii, will be the homeport for the 24th FRC, the Coast Guard Cutter Oliver Berry. According to Olexy, the FRC program is on track with respect to cost, schedule, and performance. Recent FRCs delivered to the Coast Guard require less post-delivery work needed to prepare the vessels for operations than earlier boats. Instead of pursuing a ground-up design, the Coast Guard selected a “parent craft” design for the Sentinelclass patrol boat to ensure that the operating force receives new patrol boats, capable of performing the required missions, as quickly as possible, Olexy said. The Coast Guard coined the term parent craft to describe the use of an existing ship design that has successfully performed equivalent missions. The FRC is being built using a design inspired by the Netherlands-based Damen Group Stan 4708 patrol vessel, which is slightly larger than Damen’s 4207 patrol boat currently in service with navies, coast guards, customs services, and border patrols around the world. The FRC has been through a rigorous test-and-evaluation process by the Department of Defense and has been certified as meeting the requirements. In order to make a ship that’s larger and more capable without doubling the size of the crew, the aboard crew
U.S. COAST GUARD PHOTO
By EDWARD LUNDQUIST
