The Heritage-class cutter, also known as the Offshore Patrol Cutter and the Maritime Security Cutter, Medium, is a cutter class of 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, mu ...

(USCG), developed as part of the

Integrated Deepwater System Program The Integrated Deepwater System Program (IDS Program or Deepwater) was the 25-year program to replace all or much of the United States Coast Guard's equipment, including aircraft, ships, and logistics and command and control systems. The $24 billi ...

and built by

Eastern Shipbuilding Eastern Shipbuilding Group is a shipbuilder based in Panama City, Florida that operates facilities in the Florida Panhandle in Panama City, Allanton, and Port St. Joe. The company was founded in 1976 as Eastern Marine by Brian R. D’Isernia as a b ...

and

Austal USA Austal USA is an American shipbuilder based on Blakeley Island in Mobile, Alabama. It is a subsidiary of the Australian shipbuilder Austal, operating under a Special Security Arrangement which allows it to work independently and separately on ...

. Construction of the first vessel in the class began in January 2019. As they are completed, it is expected that they will replace Famous- and ''Reliance''-class Medium Endurance Cutters.

Mission

The Heritage-class cutters will perform various USCG 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. For defense operations the WMSM will meet a range of roles from theater security cooperation to deploying with an expeditionary strike group (ESG) or supporting a combatant commander in various ways. The cutters will also support Arctic operations.

Design

The Heritage-class cutters are the newest class of cutter in the USCG, bridging the capabilities of the and s. The design is based on Vard Marine's VARD 7 110 offshore patrol vessel design. The cutters will be classified to American Bureau of Shipping Naval Vessel Rules with USCG addendum and will be built with a mix of military and commercial standards. The cutters will have the ability to install additional equipment (armament) and systems to augment their capabilities if required to conduct operations in higher threat environments in support of national security objectives or other missions. The cutters' construction will provide combat survivability against various threats, including combatant-type compartmentalization, uninterruptible power supply to vital combat and damage control systems and sensors, and ballistic materials over critical areas for protection against small caliber weapons and shrapnel. The cutters have increased interoperability with other USCG and

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assets, which provides increased communications and similar systems with other combatants such as the Mk 110 and the Mk 38, weapons used in both the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

(USN) and the USCG. This ensures that the Heritage class has the required interoperability to execute naval warfare tasks with the USN. These cutters have space and weight reserved for additional weapons systems which would allow them to carry out wartime missions.

Propulsion

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

will supply the USCG Heritage-class fleet's

controllable-pitch propellers In marine propulsion, a variable-pitch propeller is a type of propeller with blades that can be rotated around their long axis to change the blade pitch. Reversible propellers—those where the pitch can be set to negative values—can als ...

(CPP), shaft lines, and Promas rudders, which offer increased propulsive efficiency and improved maneuverability. The Promas rudder, combined with the water-soluble polyalkylene glycol (PAG) lubricant used in the CPP system, delivers an efficient and environmentally friendly propulsion solution. Rolls-Royce will also supply

bow thruster Manoeuvering thruster (bow thruster or stern thruster) is a transversal propulsion device built into, or mounted to, either the bow or stern, of a ship or boat to make it more manoeuvrable. Bow thrusters make docking easier, since they allow th ...

s, steering gear, fin stabilizers, and MTU marine generator sets.

Combat suite

The

Saab Saab or SAAB may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Saab Group, a Swedish aerospace and defence company, formerly known as SAAB, and later as Saab AB ** Datasaab, a former computer company, started as spin off from Saab AB * Saab Automobile, a fo ...

Sea Giraffe AN/SPS-77 multi-mode medium-range naval radar system provides three-dimensional air and surface search functions. The multi-mode naval radar also provides Gun Weapon System cueing and supports the cutter's self-defense and limited air defense capability. The cutters are also equipped with the AN/SLQ-32C(V)6 electronic warfare system, which is a scaled down and lower cost version of the AN/SLQ-32(V)6 SEWIP Block 2 system. The Heritage-class cutters are equipped with the same 220 rpm

Bofors 57 mm gun The Bofors 57 mm gun is a nickname or designation given to several types of guns designed and developed by the Swedish company Bofors: *, a 57 mm anti tank gun for the Swedish army during WW2. * Bofors 57 mm Automatic Gun L/50, a 57 ...

as mounted on the USN's

Littoral combat ship The littoral combat ship (LCS) is either of two classes of relatively small surface vessels designed for operations near shore by the United States Navy. It was "envisioned to be a networked, agile, stealthy surface combatant capable of defeat ...

s and the USCG's Legend-class cutters. The missile defense duties are handled by the MK 53 decoy systems also used on the Legend-class cutters. The Heritage-class cutters weapon and defense systems provide anti-surface capability, limited air-defense capability, and the capability to provide naval gunfire support. The cutter's .50 caliber mounts and Mk 38/Mk 110 combination also give the cutter protection against fast attack craft. The WMSM will have the capability and equipment to escape from a CBRNE and/or TIC contaminated environment.

History

The cutter was originally proposed to replace aging medium endurance cutters with more capable and technologically advanced cutters as a part of the

. By 2010 and 2011 some commentators speculated that the entire program was vulnerable to cancellation on budgetary grounds, because of the long delay in finalizing a preliminary design. A bill passed by the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

on 15 November 2011, imposed conditions on the USCG's capital expenditures, that revolved around the design of the Offshore Patrol Cutter, granting greater certainty to the project. By December 2011 plans for the cutter started to become more concrete. Plans to include a

stern launching ramp Some modern patrol vessels are equipped with a stern launching ramp, for deploying smaller rescue or pursuit boats without requiring the parent ship to first come to a halt. Typically the smaller craft are powered by water-jets, and can dri ...

, as on the

National Security Cutters The Legend-class cutter, also known as the National Security Cutter (NSC) and Maritime Security Cutter, Large, is the largest active patrol cutter class of the United States Coast Guard. Entering into service in 2008, the Legend-class is the la ...

and the Fast Response Cutters, had been eliminated on budgetary grounds. In February 2014, the USCG announced that Bollinger Shipyards,

, and

General Dynamics Bath Iron Works Bath Iron Works (BIW) is a major United States shipyard located on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine, founded in 1884 as Bath Iron Works, Limited. Since 1995, Bath Iron Works has been a subsidiary of General Dynamics. It is the fifth-largest ...

had been awarded design contracts for the OPC. The Government Accountability Office denied contract appeals by VT Halter Marine and Ingalls Shipbuilding. In September 2016, Eastern Shipbuilding of Panama City, Florida, was awarded a $110.3 million contract to build the first Offshore Patrol Cutter with an option to purchase eight additional cutters. On 15 October 2016 the Coast Guard issued a notice to proceed with the detailed design of the Offshore Patrol Cutter to Eastern Shipbuilding. The first Offshore Patrol Cutter is expected to be delivered in late 2022. In total, the 25-ship deal could be worth up to $10.5 billion. On 21 July 2017, Eastern Shipbuilding completed its Initial Critical Design Review for the Offshore Patrol Cutter. This leads to the Final Critical Design Review for the Offshore Patrol Cutter. On 3 August 2017, it was announced that the OPC's will be named "Heritage class" and the first 11 OPCs were named. The Heritage-class OPCs are named after cutters that played a significant role in the Coast Guard's history. On 7 September 2017, it was announced the USCG exercised a fixed-price option to procure long lead time materials for the first Heritage-class cutter. The total value is $41.68 million, this covers various materials and parts needed for the engines, switchboards and generators, steering and propeller components, and control systems. This also includes meeting Coast Guard requirements, and meeting all American Bureau of Shipping Naval Vessel Rules and is the first US Coast Guard cutter ever constructed to meet these very specific requirements. The construction of the first cutter, USCGC Argus (WMSM-915), was planned to begin in the late summer of 2018, with delivery in August 2021. On 28 September 2018, the USCG exercised the contract option to begin construction of the lead Offshore Patrol Cutter, along with long-lead materials for OPC #2. The total value of the options exercised is $317.5 million. Delayed by the impact of

Hurricane Michael Hurricane Michael was a very powerful and destructive tropical cyclone that became the first Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the contiguous United States since Andrew in 1992. It was the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane to m ...

in October 2018, steel cutting for USCGC Argus began on 7 January 2019. On 11 October 2019, the Department of Homeland Security approved a limited extraordinary relief for the offshore patrol cutter contract as a result of damage to Eastern Shipbuilding facilities caused by Hurricane Michael, and adjusted the offshore patrol cutter detail design and construction contract with Eastern Shipbuilding group for up to the first four hulls. The Coast Guard will release a Request for Information to see industry interest in re-competing the remainder of the offshore patrol cutter

Program of Record The processes of government procurement in the United States enable federal, state and local government bodies in the country to acquire goods, services (including construction), and interests in real property. In fiscal year 2019, the US Feder ...

. On 2 July 2022, Austal USA was awarded the contract for detail design and material acquisition for the fifth hull in the class, with an option for up to 11 hulls in total (hulls 5-15).

Ship list

References

{{reflist

External links

Matagorda deploying and retrieving her Short Range Prosecutor at speed

Offshore Patrol Cutter
at USCG Acquisition Directorate site Patrol vessels of the United States United States Coast Guard