Written by
D-Mitch
This is the second post of a new category of infographics of various
coast guard vessels from around the world. These infographics aim to
highlight the most important equipment of the vessels; I do not analyze
the systems in depth as I do for the warships instead I provide some
basic information mainly from wikipedia (if else I provide the source) about the ships, their history and their capabilities.
1. Legend class cutters (National Security Cutters - NSCs) of the United States Coast Guard
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| USCGC Bertholf |
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USCGC Bertholf with open hangars
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NSCs are the flagship of the Coast Guard's cutter fleet, designed to replace the 115-meter Hamilton-class High-Endurance Cutters, which entered service during the 1960s. Ingalls has delivered five till today with one more being on sea trials. The Legend-class cutters are the second longest of all U.S. Coast Guard cutters, behind the research icebreaker
Healy, and will replace the twelve Hamilton class cutters in service. These cutters are envisioned by the Coast Guard as being able to undertake the entire range of the High Endurance Cutter roles with additional upgrades to make it more of an asset to the Department of Defense during declared national emergency contingencies (the NSC is built to about 90% military standards). These vessels can be used for intercepting suspect vessels, or for
rescuing swimmers, fishery protection, maritime homeland security
missions, counter terrorism, or coastal patrol missions. To facilitate
intercept missions, the Legend class can carry and launch both the 7-meter Short Range Prosecutor and the 11-meter Long Range Interceptor RHIBs.
