U.S. Coast Guard Buys 10 More Fast Response Cutters From Bollinger

 

The United States Coast Guard announced Tuesday that it will award $507 million to Bollinger to begin construction of 10 more Fast Response Cutters, which are the backbone of its nearshore patrol fleet and a versatile stand-in for overseas missions. The agreement is part of the service's newly-invigorated shipbuilding plan, bolstered by historic new funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. 

The Act handed the Coast Guard nearly $25 billion for procurement and repairs, including $1 billion for FRCs. The congressionally-authorized order brings the total Fast Response Cutter fleet under contract from 67 vessels to 77, expanding on one of America's most successful shipbuilding programs. Since the first hull joined the fleet in 2012 to replace the service's aging 110-foot Island-class patrol vessels, FRCs have grown in number and voyaged the seas; they are now homeported around the world, from Florida to Alaska to Guam and Bahrain. 

Currently, 59 Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutters are actively deployed alongside larger assets. Though small compared to a medium-endurance cutter (WMEC), the FRCs are much bigger than the predecessor Island-class cutters, and have been tested on much longer oceangoing deployments than typically assigned to vessels of this size. Capable of achieving maximum speeds between 28 and 30 knots, the cutter can also transit up to 2,500 nautical miles at 12 knots.

The vessels' elevated bow and fin stabilizers improve their handling characteristics beyond what might be expected for a 350-ton hull, enabling small boat deployment in waves of up to six feet in height. And with a 22-person roster and a lieutenant in command, they are lean and efficient to crew, a major virtue for a resource-constrained Coast Guard.