The Cutter Boat – Over the Horizon (CB-OTH), is a cutter-deployed rigid-hulled inflatable boat in service with the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...

. It is designed to pursue and interdict fast, non-compliant vessels. , 78 boats have been delivered, and deployed on a variety of cutters, including the Maritime Security Cutters, ''Hamilton''-class High Endurance Cutters, and Famous and ''Reliance''-class

Medium Endurance Cutters Medium may refer to: Science and technology Aviation *Medium bomber, a class of war plane * Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Communication * Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data * Medium o ...

, and the s. Eventually, at least 101 boats will be deployed.

Design

The Over the Horizon boat is in length. Its fourth generation is manufactured by SAFE Boats International of Port Orchard, Washington. It is part of a 101-boat order worth up to $58.9 million. The hull is fabricated 5086 marine grade

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

and it has a foam collar. It is an

inboard/outboard A sterndrive or inboard/outboard drive (I/O) is a form of marine propulsion which combines inboard power with outboard drive. The engine sits just forward of the transom while the drive unit (outdrive or drive leg) lies outside the hull. Operat ...

design powered by a

Cummins Cummins Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and distributes engines, filtration, and power generation products. Cummins also services engines and related equipment, including fuel systems, controls, air ...

diesel inboard engine with

Hamilton jet Sir Charles William Feilden Hamilton (26 July 1899 – 30 March 1978) was a New Zealand engineer who developed the modern jetboat, and founded the water jet manufacturing company, CWF Hamilton Ltd. Hamilton never claimed to have invented the je ...

drive. The boats are equipped with

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

, electronic compass,

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...

, and other electronic navigation systems, loud-hailer, and both HF and VHF-FM radios. The boats come equipped with five special shock-absorbing seats, necessary because proceeding at high speed, over waves, could injure crewmember's spines. A version of the boat with an all-black sponson and forward machine gun mount is used by Maritime Safety and Security Teams and the Maritime Security Response Team.

Use

The Coast Guard's newer cutters, the National Security Cutter, Sentinel-class cutter, and the smaller are designed with a stern launching ramp. Stern launching ramps permit the cutters to deploy and retrieve water-jet propelled boats, without first coming to a stop. The Marine Protector-class cutters require just a single crew member to remain on deck to control the deployment and retrieval of its jet boat.

References

Inflatable boats Boats of the United States Coast Guard {{USCG-stub

Design

Use

See also

References