Northrop Grumman [NOC] has successfully lifted the 25-ton mast onto the second Coast Guard National Security Cutter (NSC), putting the ship at 42 percent complete in the production process at the company’s shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS) said Wednesday.

The second NSC, called the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Waesche (WMSL 751), is due to be launched next April.

Based on lessons learned with the first NSC, the USCGC Bertholf, the Waesche‘s mast was landed with 30 percent more of its outfitting work completed prior to the lift, Bob Penney, ship program manager for NSC-2, said in a statement.

Separately, ICGS said that Lockheed Martin [LMT] has demonstrated communications and navigation interoperability between the Long Range Intercepter (LRI) boat and Bertholf. The LRI will carry Coast Guard personnel and boarding parties, extending the reach and capability of the larger vessel.

During a dry run of the test communications, interoperability between the two vessels was demonstrated at ranges of up to 16 nautical miles. ICGS said that communications range requirements were exceeded for ultra-high frequency military-band and law enforcement radios and very high frequency digital selective calling radios. Radio communication was demonstrated for the high frequency military-band over-the-horizon radio and an INMARSAT satellite link was established and maintained during high speed maneuvers. ICGS also said that the Bertholf’s C4ISR system successfully tracked and provided course navigational correlation with the LRI’s fully integrated sensor suite.

ICGS is a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman and is responsible for helping the Coast Guard manage its Deepwater modernization program.