By Calvin Biesecker
The Coast Guard’s first National Security Cutter (NSC) is demonstrating greater capabilities than the ships it is replacing in its first operations in the Bering Sea, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Bob Papp told a Senate committee yesterday.
The Coast Guard cutter Bertholf has been operating in the Bering Sea for a month sailing in 20-foot seas and contending with winds above 60 knots and has been able to launch and recover its helicopter, Papp told the Senate Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee.
That was “unheard of in the past to be able to do that from one of our High Endurance Cutters up in the Bering Sea,” Papp said. Moreover, he said, Bertholf is launching its small boats “in worse conditions than they were able to in the past because of the stern launch capabilities.”
Several weeks ago, Papp spent a day riding on the second NSC, the Waesche, out of San Francisco and he was “totally impressed with the smooth functioning of that ship and the capabilities it brings to bear for all Coast Guard missions.” However, “proving it is another thing,” he said, which is what Bertholf’s performance is doing.
Other improvements that the first two NSC vessels are demonstrating include greater endurance and operations with a smaller crew, 40 fewer than the Hamilton-class high endurance cutters, which also are enjoying better living conditions aboard ship, Papp said. Papp said the NSCs are performing their missions for longer periods of time because the “engines are more economical to run, even at higher speeds” than the Hamilton-class vessels.
Capt. John Prince, the commander of the Bertholf, said in a Coast Guard blog post on Monday that taking advantage of the “economical speed” of his ship “has allowed us to remain at sea for more than 24 days at a time and cover large swaths of the ocean with our sensors and helicopters, while still maintaining a fuel reserve in the event of emergency.”
Papp said that the ongoing operations are “proving the solid design and all the work that went in and I couldn’t be more pleased with these ships.”
The NSC’s are being built by Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII] in Mississippi. The shipbuilder is the former shipbuilding division of Northrop Grumman [NOC]. The third ship in the class, the Stratton, is slated to be delivered later this year. The Coast Guard recently awarded the contract for the fourth vessel and the funding in the FY ’11 budget for the fifth NSC. The Coast Guard plans to purchase eight NSCs to replace 11 high-endurance cutters.
The Coast Guard currently expects to have funding for the eighth cutter in its FY ’15 budget, the same year it expects to have funding for its first medium-endurance Offshore Patrol Cutter as well as six Fast Response Cutters.
Subcommittee chairman Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), said the approximately $2.3 billion in acquisition funds the Coast Guard hopes to have in FY ’15 far exceeds $1.4 billion, the most the service has ever requested for equipment purchases.
Last month a Government Accountability Office official told Congress that the Coast Guard’s out-year budget assumptions were unrealistically high. Vice Adm. John Currier, deputy commandant for Mission Support, said the rising funding profile is “justified” given the requirements placed upon his service (Defense Daily, April 14).
Papp, who has been vocal about the Coast Guard not having the funds it needs to carry out all of its missions to the extent the nation demands, said that in the out-year Capital Investment Plan “we’re asking for what we need.” The service plans to eventually acquire 25 OPCs, which will bridge operations between the NSCs and FRCs, which operate closer to shore.
Papp also pointed out that the Obama administration “signed off on our Capital Investment Plan so I’m very hopeful we’ll follow through with that.”