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44-1235: 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 (USCG), developed as part of the Integrated Deepwater System Program and built by Eastern Shipbuilding and Austal USA . Construction of the first vessel in the class began in January 2019. As they are completed, it is expected that they will replace 270-foot (82 m) Famous- and 210-foot (64 m) Reliance -class Medium Endurance Cutters . 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,

88-513: A 1:1 match of designs. Broadly speaking, military planners in the US after World War II envisioned that a Warsaw Pact invasion of Western Europe would require a massive convoy effort to Europe to supply allied forces in theatre. Against this necessity of logistical and combat support, the Soviet Union expanded its submarine fleet, which in the event of hostilities may have been sufficient to deny

132-426: A bomber force, but their comparatively low range and loiter time made it impossible to keep a constant combat air patrol over hundreds of miles of ocean. The range of anti-ship missiles also typically put bombers out of range of fighters launching once a raid was detected, nullifying a major part of the fleet's anti-air defences. The ability to bring real time intelligence from long range radars and satellite imaging to

176-499: A coordinated attack which leads to defensive fire being wasted on the same targets. Networking also brings information from airborne radar, giving vastly longer range than any ship board radar could achieve due to the radar horizon. Additionally modern communication and intelligence tools make carrier fleets harder to attack than in previous decades. The challenge for a carrier in the 1970s was in effectively using its air arm against incoming bombers. Fighters could cause huge casualties in

220-444: A far larger number of targets at one time, increasing the number of missiles needed to saturate defences. The arrival of vertical launching systems allow for dozens of SAMs to be launched almost simultaneously from each ship, a substantial advance over older missile launchers that could only fire one or two missiles before reloading. Should salvoes of SAMs fail to destroy a saturation attack, 'soft kill' countermeasures are complemented by

264-443: A few hits to make an attack successful. The major change is that attackers now need to invest more resources into each attack. Larger formations of aircraft are needed to successfully saturate defences, but if this can be achieved then the aircraft will cause very significant damage. Even a single missile may be able to penetrate defences and sink a ship and even the most successful defence systems cannot guarantee an interception, simply

308-487: A higher likelihood of one. Most naval vessels today are equipped with long range anti-surface missiles such as Harpoon and Exocet which are capable of crippling or destroying enemy ships with a single hit. These can be fired from vertical launch systems or from stand alone launch tubes and are designed to attack other warships. Smaller ships such as the US Navy's littoral combat ship make use of smaller missiles, such as

352-789: A mix of military and commercial standards. The cutters will have the ability to install additional 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 Department of Defense assets, which provides increased communications and similar systems with other combatants such as

396-399: A part of many ships' weaponry. Weapons such as the 5-inch Mark 45 gun remain in service to provide artillery support against land targets but also with a function against surface ships. Missiles are typically a better weapon in terms of their destructive potential but cannon shells are much harder (if not impossible) to intercept with anti-missile defence systems and likely will not be seen on

440-465: A ship's potential firepower many times over. While an Arleigh Burke -class destroyer typically carries eight Harpoons ready to fire, it carries forty or more Standard missiles in its vertical launch cells. This also presents a Standard armed ship with the potential to attack a long range target without necessarily trying to sink it, something very valuable against non-military targets. While naval guns have largely been supplanted by missiles, guns remain

484-516: The AGM-114 Hellfire , in the surface-to-surface role that are less suited to attack warships but are still dangerous against fast attack craft or smugglers and pirates as well as land targets. A surface ship has several key disadvantages as a ship-to-ship missile platform compared to other combatants. Being close to the surface substantially reduces radar range due to the radar horizon which makes it harder to find targets and decreases

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528-530: The Argus in January 2019. United States Coast Guard Cutter United States Coast Guard Cutter is the term used by the U.S. Coast Guard for its commissioned vessels. They are 65 feet (19.8 m) or greater in length and have a permanently assigned crew with accommodations aboard. They carry the ship prefix USCGC . The Revenue Marine and the Revenue Cutter Service , as it

572-735: The Harpoon , RBS-15 , P-500 Bazalt , Penguin and Exocet . Following the results of the Battle of Taranto and the Battle of Midway during World War II , the primary combatant ship type was the fleet aircraft carrier . After World War II, the ASuW concept primarily involved the multiple carrier battle groups fielded by the United States Navy , against which the Soviet Union designed specialized strategies that did not equate to

616-709: The National Security Cutters and the Fast Response Cutters , had been eliminated on budgetary grounds. In February 2014, the USCG announced that Bollinger Shipyards , Eastern Shipbuilding , and General Dynamics Bath Iron Works 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,

660-736: The United Kingdom 's HM Customs and Excise and the term was adopted by the U.S. Treasury Department at the creation of what would become the Revenue Marine. Since that time, no matter what the vessel type, the service has referred to its vessels with permanently assigned crews as cutters. In 1790, Congress authorized the Secretary of the Treasury , Alexander Hamilton , to create a maritime service to enforce customs laws (1 Stat. L. 145, 175; 4 August 1790). Alternatively known as

704-703: The Yom Kippur War saw Israeli missile boats sink an equal number of Syrian boats by using electronic counter measures and chaff to successfully avoid missile fire, but modern missiles typically have additional guidance systems that make such defences much less effective. In a modern conflict anti-surface missiles would more likely be used against merchant shipping or auxiliary ships and only against similarly armed vessels when no other weapons are available. The arrival of networked weapon systems do potentially offer surface-to-surface missiles way to launch, using radar data from an aircraft or UAV to target missiles over

748-489: The Atlantic," but by the late 1980s, many advanced designs were approaching sound-output equivalent to a body of water the size of the sub. P-3 Orions or other ASW maritime patrol planes could deploy magnetic anomaly detectors or disposable sonobuoys , against which the concept of a submarine firing a SAM was generally considered a poor trade-off (the revelation of the submarine's location was not generally considered worth

792-501: 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

836-849: The Mk 110 and the Mk 38 , weapons used in both the United States Navy (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. Rolls-Royce will supply the USCG Heritage-class fleet's controllable-pitch propellers (CPP), shaft lines, and Promas rudders, which offer increased propulsive efficiency and improved maneuverability. The Promas rudder, combined with

880-649: The Offshore Patrol Cutter. This leads to the Final Critical Design Review for the Offshore Patrol Cutter. In 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. In September 2017, the USCG exercised a fixed-price option to procure long lead time materials for

924-557: 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 give the cutter protection against fast attack craft. The WMSM will have

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968-675: 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. The Heritage-class cutters are the newest class of cutter in the USCG, bridging the capabilities of the Legend and Sentinel-class cutters . 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

1012-527: The air defences of a fleet. Some commentators believed that this capability was consistently underestimated. Exocet anti-ship missile strikes against the Royal Navy during the Falklands War even resulted in the adoption of 'Exocet' as a slang term for a 'sharp, devastating and surprising attack.' The USS Stark incident showed a medium-sized power could significantly damage a modern frigate, with

1056-504: The attack of a single plane on a single ship capable of inflicting heavy damage, let alone the scenario of a multi-ship flight. The same advantages that made planes so successful against surface ships in World War II are largely still existent. Aircraft can attack in large numbers with little warning and can carry multiple weapons that are each capable of disabling a ship. While warships are able to carry powerful defensive technologies

1100-412: The capability and equipment to escape from a CBRNE and/or TIC contaminated environment. The cutter was originally proposed to replace aging medium endurance cutters with more capable and technologically advanced cutters as a part of the Integrated Deepwater System Program . By 2010 and 2011 some commentators speculated that the entire program was vulnerable to cancellation on budgetary grounds, because of

1144-545: The cutter's self-defense and limited air defense capability. The cutters are 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 as mounted on the USN's Littoral combat ships and Constellation-class frigates , as well as

1188-490: The defender's radar, providing a potential advantage for a surprise attacker. Equally, guns do not require a radar lock to fire, giving them utility against stealth vessels or those too small to be detected. Undersea versus fleet action is commonly described as a "cat-and-mouse" game, where submarines seek to escape detection long enough to engage in a punishing strike against the much more valuable aircraft carrier fleet groups. Early Soviet submarine designs could be heard "across

1232-445: 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 includes meeting Coast Guard requirements, and meeting all American Bureau of Shipping Naval Vessel Rules. It is the first US Coast Guard cutter ever constructed to meet these very specific requirements. The construction of

1276-583: The first cutter, USCGC Argus (WMSM-915), was planned to begin in the late summer of 2018, with delivery in August 2021. In 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 in October 2018, steel cutting for USCGC Argus began in January 2019. In October 2019,

1320-448: The fleet better allows fighters to be used against attackers in the air. These improvements do not make a fleet impervious to missile attack but do increase a fleet's ability to defend itself and the number of attackers needed to saturate defences. Attackers retain the advantage because a fleet is still relatively static and needs to be successful against every incoming missile to avoid significant losses while attackers only need to achieve

1364-506: The horizon and engage ships without exposing the launcher to retaliation although such systems are yet to be deployed. One recent advance in surface to surface weaponry is the modification of RIM-66 Standard anti-air missiles to attack surface targets. Although not as powerful as a dedicated anti-ship missile they are extremely fast and agile and better able to penetrate anti-missile defences. Additionally as many more surface-to-air missiles are typically carried on every vessel this increases

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1408-418: The invention of the point-defence close-in weapon system (CIWS), usually a rapid-fire autocannon sometimes paired with a missile system as a last line of defence. Finally the arrival of networked fleet level defence direction using many radars and many launch platforms together to intercept a cloud of missiles allows for better use of defence resources. Previously each ship would have to act individually against

1452-529: The long delay in finalizing a preliminary design. A bill passed by the United States Congress in 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 , as on

1496-404: The maximum range that a missile could be usefully launched at. Also, launching from low altitude costs more fuel than air launch, further decreasing a missile's potential range. However ships can carry far more missiles than any other platform and are thus able to attack more targets or continue an engagement for longer than other platforms. While ships do retain a robust anti-ship missile armament

1540-502: The need to destroy every incoming missile leaves them at a disadvantage. Missiles and supersonic aircraft are very difficult targets to hit and even the most advanced systems cannot provide certainty of interception. During the Cold War the gulf was at its most pronounced, with saturation missile attacks a major concern but the gulf has closed a little in recent time. The advent of phased array radar on ships allow them to track and target

1584-515: The possible hit on a single plane). However, the concept of the submarine firing on the plane has been revived with Germany's Type 209 diesel submarines. Submarines seeking to engage in ASuW can also be targeted by other submarines, resulting in wholly undersea combat. Shore-based assets may have provided the decisive edge in surface warriors, with constraints imposed by range of such assets. Furthermore, satellites controlled from ground stations could provide information on enemy fleet movements. In

1628-488: The prop-driven Tu-142 , primarily designed for anti-submarine warfare (ASW), could and was armed with anti-ship missiles. Following the end of the Cold War , ASuW still involves asymmetries, which may for now be more pronounced. After the development of reliable, long-range, guided missiles, air ASuW was imagined to consist of a mass attack by high-speed jet aircraft launching a sufficient number of missiles to overwhelm

1672-557: The remainder of the offshore patrol cutter Program of Record . In 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). In August 2023, the Coast Guard estimated that the first Offshore Patrol Cutter, USCGC Argus (WMSM-915), won't be delivered until around September 30, 2024, over three years later than its original projected delivery date of August 2021, and nearly six years after Eastern Shipbuilding first cut steel for

1716-563: The supply of material to the theatre. As military strategists often design counter-strategies to meet the capabilities of the rival force, the West then responded with the construction of SOSUS lines to track Soviet submarines. From the air, Soviet naval aviation had ASuW capabilities. The Tupolev Tu-16 Badger G was armed with anti-ship missiles, followed by the Tupolev Tu-22M Backfire supersonic maritime strike bomber. Even

1760-568: The system of cutters, Revenue Service, and Revenue-Marine this service was officially named the Revenue Cutter Service (12 Stat. L., 639) in 1863. This service was placed under the control of the Treasury Department. The first ten cutters were: Anti-surface warfare Anti-surface warfare can be divided into four categories based on the platform from which weapons are launched : Anti-ship missiles include

1804-448: The ubiquity of such missiles makes an engagement with anti-ship missiles between surface ships fairly unlikely because for one ship to launch its missiles it would have to bring itself within range of the enemy's missiles. Even with surprise the flight time of such missiles is long enough for an enemy to return fire before being hit, making such an engagement extremely dangerous without some additional advantage. The Battle of Latakia during

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1848-612: The water-soluble polyalkylene glycol (PAG) lubricant used in the CPP system, delivers an efficient and environmentally friendly propulsion solution. Rolls-Royce will supply bow thrusters , steering gear, fin stabilizers , and MTU marine generator sets. Leonardo DRS is providing a small Hybrid Electric Drive for operation at low speed. The Saab Sea Giraffe AN/SPS-77(V)3 multi-mode medium-range naval radar system provides three-dimensional air and surface search functions. The multi-mode naval radar provides Gun Weapon System cueing and supports

1892-495: Was awarded a $ 110.3 million contract to build the first Offshore Patrol Cutter with an option to purchase eight additional cutters. In 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. In July 2017, Eastern Shipbuilding completed its Initial Critical Design Review for

1936-408: Was known variously throughout the late 18th and the 19th centuries, referred to its ships as cutters . The term is English in origin and refers to a specific type of vessel, namely, "a small, decked ship with one mast and bowsprit , with a gaff mainsail on a boom , a square yard and topsail , and two jibs or a jib and a staysail ." With general usage, that term came to define any vessel of

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