Name Sentinel class Active 19 Displacement 353 long tons (359 t) | Planned 58 Type Cutter | |
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Operators United States Coast Guard | ||
The Sentinel-class cutter, previously known as the Fast Response Cutter, is part of the United States Coast Guard's Deepwater program. At 46.8 metres (154 ft) it is similar to, but larger than the eight unseaworthy 123-foot (37 m) lengthened 1980s-era 110-foot Island-class patrol boats, like USCGC Matagorda taken out of service in December 2006. Up to 58 vessels are to be built by the Louisiana-based firm Bollinger Shipyards, using a design from the Netherlands-based Damen Group, with the Sentinel design based on the company's Damen Stan 4708 patrol vessel.
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Planning and acquisition
On March 14, 2007, United States Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen announced that the USCG had withdrawn a contract from Bollinger for the construction of a new class of vessels, but had not entirely cancelled the program. The new program would focus more on existing "off-the-shelf" technology.
On September 26, 2008, Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, Louisiana, United States, was awarded US$88 million to build a prototype. The vessel would be the first of a series of 24-34 46.8-meter (154 ft) cutters built to a design largely based on the Damen Stan 4708 patrol vessels from the Netherlands firm the Damen Group. The South African government operates three similar 154 ft Lillian Ngoyi-class vessels for environmental and fishery patrol.
The first cutter, USCGC Bernard C. Webber, and all future Sentinel-class vessels would be named after enlisted Coast Guard heroes. Bernard C. Webber was launched on Thursday, April 21, 2011, and commissioned on Saturday, April 14, 2012 at the Port of Miami.
Bernard C. Webber, and five sister ships, are stationed in Miami, Florida. The second cohort of six vessels is homeported in Key West, Florida, while the third cohort of six vessels is homeported in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
On September 26, 2013, Marine Link reported that the Coast Guard had placed orders with Bollinger Shipyards for additional cutters, bringing the number of such cutters ordered by then to thirty. As of June 23, 2016, eight more for a total of 38 FRCs have been ordered, 17 are in service, with six in Miami, Florida; six in Key West, Florida; and five in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The 18th fast response cutter, Joseph Tezanos, was delivered to the Coast Guard in Key West, Florida, on June 22, 2016. That cutter will be the sixth stationed in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and will complete the USCG complement there.
Mission
The vessels will perform various Coast Guard missions which include but are not limited to PWCS (Ports, Waterways, and Coastal Security), Defense Operations, Maritime Law Enforcement (Drug/migrant interdiction and other Law Enforcement), Search and Rescue, Marine Safety, and environment protection.
Design and construction
The vessels are armed with a remote-control 25 mm Bushmaster autocannon and four crew-served M2HB .50-caliber machine guns. They have a bow thruster for maneuvering in crowded anchorages and channels. They also have small underwater fins, for coping with the rolling and pitching caused by large waves. They are equipped with a stern launching ramp, like the Marine Protector-class and the eight failed expanded Island-class cutters. They are manned by a crew of 22. Like the Marine Protector class, and the cancelled extended Island-class cutters, the Fast Response Cutter would deploy the Short Range Prosecutor rigid-hulled inflatable boat (SRP or RHIB) for rescues and interceptions. According to Marine Log, modifications to the Coast Guard vessels from the Stan 4708 design include an increase in speed from 23 to 28 knots (43 to 52 km/h; 26 to 32 mph), fixed-pitch rather than variable-pitch propellers, stern launch capability, and watertight bulkheads. The vessels are built to ABS High Speed Naval Craft rules. The vessels have space, weight, and power reserved for future requirements which includes weapons and their systems.
On September 26, 2008, Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, Louisiana, was awarded US$88 million to build the prototype first vessel in its class. That vessel became USCGC Bernard C. Webber, which is the first of 58 planned Sentinel-class cutters to go into the U.S. Coast Guard fleet to replace their remaining 37 aging, 1980s-era 110 ft Island-class patrol boats.
On February 7, 2013, the Department of Homeland Security requested tenders from third party firms to independently inspect the cutters, during their construction, and their performance trials.
The bridge is equipped with a handheld device that allows crew members to remotely control the ship's functions, including rudder movement and docking.
On July 24, 2014, it was announced that the U.S. Coast Guard had exercised a $225 million option at Bollinger Shipyards for construction through 2017 of an additional six Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutters (FRCs), bringing the total number of FRCs under contract with Bollinger to 30. Later that number was increased to 32 cutters.
On May 4, 2016, Bollinger Shipyards announced that the U.S. Coast Guard awarded it a new contract for building the final 26 Sentinel-class fast-response cutters. That brings to 58 the total number of FRCs that the USCG ordered from Bollinger. Acquiring the 58 cutters is expected to cost the federal government $3.8 billion — an average of about $65 million per cutter.
Crew accommodation
Prior to the deployment of the Marine Protector class, the Coast Guard decided that all its cutters, even its smallest, should be able to accommodate mixed sex crews, and the Sentinel-class cutters are also able to accommodate mixed sex crews. When Rollin A. Fritch was commissioned a profile in the Philadelphia Inquirer asserted off-duty crew members had access to satellite television broadcasts. The vessels come equipped with a desalinization unit.
Ships
On October 27, 2010, the Coast Guard released the names of the first 14 Coast Guard enlisted heroes for whom the Sentinel-class FRCs will be named.
On February 10, 2015, the USCG solicited vendors to bid to provide temporary lodging services for USCG Pre-Commissioning crews in Lockport for each of 19 specific cutters to be launched for 19 specific date periods per vessel from April 19, 2015, out through December 28, 2018.
Operational histories
Press coverage of the vessels' operational histories suggests they have been effective at interdicting desperate refugees who resort to dangerous overloaded small boats, and effective at capturing drug smugglers.
The cutters have also intercepted smugglers carrying large shipments of drugs. In February 2017 Joseph Napier intercepted a shipment of over 4 tons of cocaine, reported to be the largest drug-bust in the Atlantic Ocean since 1999.
Additionally, cutters are given tasks like looking for shipping containers full of toxic cargo that have fallen from container ships, as USCGC Margaret Norvell did in December 2015, when 25 containers fell from the barge Columbia Elizabeth. Similarly, Charles Sexton helped search for the freighter El Faro when she was lost at sea during Hurricane Joaquin in October 2015.
Namesakes
Charles "Skip" W. Bowen, who was then the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard, is credited with leading the initiative of naming the vessels after enlisted rank individuals who served heroically in the Coast Guard, or one of its precursor services. Originally the first vessel of the class was to be named USCGC Sentinel.
In October 2010 the Coast Guard named the first fourteen individuals the vessels will be named after, and has provided biographies of them. They are: Bernard C. Webber, Richard Etheridge, William Flores, Robert Yered, Margaret Norvell, Paul Clark, Charles David Jr, Charles Sexton, Kathleen Moore, Joseph Napier, William Trump, Isaac Mayo, Richard Dixon, Heriberto Hernandez. A second group of eleven names was announced on April 2, 2014.
In 2013 the name of Joseph Napier was reassigned to WPC-1115 when WPC-1110 was named after the recently deceased Commander Raymond Evans. The other ten new namesakes were: Winslow W. Griesser, Richard H. Patterson, Joseph Tezanos, Rollin A. Fritch, Lawrence O. Lawson, John F. McCormick, Bailey T. Barco, Benjamin B. Dailey, Donald H. Horsley, and Jacob L. A. Poroo. The 17th cutter (ex-USCGC Richard H. Patterson) was renamed as Donald H. Horsley after request of the Patterson Family, and the 24th cutter (ex-USCGC Donald H. Horsley) then was renamed as Oliver F. Berry.
On July 30, 2014, Coast Guard Commandant, Paul Zukunft, announced that the Coast Guard would name an additional cutter after Senior Chief Petty Officer Terrell Horne, the first Coast Guard member to be murdered in the line of duty since 1927.
In February, 2015, the Coast Guard publicized ten more names tentatively assigned to cutters 26 through 35. They were: Joseph Gerczak, Richard T. Snyder, Nathan Bruckenthal, Forrest O. Rednour, Robert G. Ward, Terrell Horne III, Benjamin A. Bottoms, Joseph O. Doyle, William C. Hart, and Oliver F. Berry,