By Calvin Biesecker
At sea trials of various ship systems have been successfully completed aboard the WAESCHE (WMSL-751), the second National Security Cutter (NSC) being built for the Coast Guard, marking a key milestone on the way to preliminary acceptance of the vessel by the service this fall, the Coast Guard and Northrop Grumman [NOC] said last week.
The Builder’s Trials were completed on Aug. 15 when WAESCHE returned to Northrop Grumman’s shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. The trials showed that there are problems with the 418-foot vessel but these are routine at this stage in the production and test process, a Coast Guard official said.
“The ship’s performance during Builder’s Trials was exceptional–beyond my expectations and by all accounts significantly better than NSC 1’s [BERTHOLF (WMSL-750)] Builder’s Trials experience,” Capt. Lance Bardo, the prospective Commanding Officer of WAESCHE, wrote on a Coast Guard blog. “While problems do continue to exist with the machinery control system, the C4ISR systems, the boat launch and recovery system and other mechanical systems, they are ‘normal’ for Builder’s Trials and far improved from the same system problems encounters during NSC 1’s Builder’s Trials and Acceptance Trials. The Builder’s Trials included a 48-hour brief stop for repairs to a critical medium pressure air compressor system–that is a known vulnerability caused by the demands of a dehydrator for the electronic warfare suite and the decision to return to port for repairs was a good risk management decision.”
During builder’s trials, Northrop Grumman operates the ship to identify areas that need additional work. Coast Guard personnel also were aboard the ship during the testing.
Construction on WAESCHE is 90 percent complete and acceptance trials are planned to begin in late September. That will be followed by an INSERV test by Navy personnel, which should result in a punch list of items that will have to be corrected. The Navy tests are expected to be followed sometime in the fall by preliminary acceptance of the new cutter by the Coast Guard.
Bardo said there is still a “huge amount” of work left to be done to have the ship ready for the acceptance trials.
In addition to the successful Builder’s Trials, a Coast Guard inspection team recently completed the final visual inspection of the classified circuits and wiring–referred to as TEMPEST–aboard WAESCHE, and found 70 percent fewer discrepancies when a similar inspection was done on the BERTHOLF, a Coast Guard spokeswoman told Defense Daily. The final instrumentation TEMPEST testing on WAESCHE is slated for next month by personnel from the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center.