A grey tarpaulin covers the Sea Dragon's advanced remote control mount for its extra machine gun. | |
History | |
---|---|
United States | |
Name | USCGC Sea Dragon |
Builder | Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, Louisiana |
Commissioned | January 2008 |
Decommissioned | May 29, 2024 |
Status | in active service |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Marine Protector-class coastal patrol boat |
Displacement | 91 long tons (92 t) |
Length | 87 ft 0 in (26.5 m) |
Beam | 19 ft 5 in (5.9 m) |
Draft | 5 ft 7 in (1.7 m) |
Propulsion | 2 × MTU diesels |
Speed | 25 knots (46 km/h) |
Range | 900 nmi (1,700 km) |
Endurance | 3 days |
Complement | 10 |
Armament | 3 × .50 caliber M2 Browning machine guns |
USCGC Sea Dragon (WPB-87367) is a decommissioned Marine Protector-class cutter that was assigned to one of two special Maritime Force Protection Units. [1] [2] [3] Each Maritime Force Protection Unit escorts nuclear submarines from one of the United States Navy's two main submarine bases. Sea Dragon was assigned to Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay. The other Maritime Force Protection Unit escorts submarines near Bangor, Washington. [4]
Sea Dragon was commissioned in January 2008. [3] She was joined by a sister ship, USCGC Sea Dog, in May, 2009. [5]
Sea Dragon and Sea Dog were decommissioned on May 29, 2024 and transferred to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. They were replaced by USCGC Sea Devil and USCGC Sea Fox, which had been carrying out the same duties in Washington. [6]
Marine Protector-class cutters are 87 feet (27 m) long. [7] [8] Their maximum speed is 25 knots (46 km/h). All the cutters carry a water-jet propelled fast pursuit boat. The boats can be launched or retrieved without bringing the mothership to a complete halt. The standard Marine Protector is armed with a pair of fifty caliber Browning M2 machine gun, that mount on pintles, on the port and starboard rail of the foredeck. But for the four vessels ordered for the Navy (Sea Dragon, Sea Dog, Sea Devil and Sea Fox) a third machine gun was added, mounted on a pedestal, in the middle of the foredeck. The third machine gun is equipped with advanced optics, is gyro stabilized, and its gunner uses remote controls–making it much more accurate, at long range, when fired from a heaving deck, at night, or in a fog. [4] [9]
Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay is a base of the United States Navy located adjacent to the city of St. Marys in Camden County, Georgia, on the East River in southeastern Georgia, and 38 miles (61 km) from Jacksonville, Florida. The Submarine Base is the U.S. Atlantic Fleet's home port for U.S. Navy Fleet ballistic missile nuclear submarines capable of being armed with Trident missile nuclear weapons. This submarine base covers about 16,000 acres of land, of which 4,000 acres are protected wetlands.
The Marine Protector-class patrol boat is a type of coastal patrol boat of the United States Coast Guard. The 87-foot-long (27 m) vessels are based on the Stan 2600 design by Damen Group and were built by Bollinger Shipyards of Lockport, Louisiana. Almost all of these boats have been delivered to the U.S. Coast Guard, which has named them after sea creatures that fly or swim. Four have been delivered to Malta and Yemen.
The Island-class patrol boat is a class of cutters of the United States Coast Guard. 49 cutters of the class were built, of which 3 remain in commission. Their hull numbers are WPB-1301 through WPB-1349.
The USCGC Morgenthau (WHEC-722), was the eighth of twelve 378-foot dual-powered turbine/diesel Hamilton-class high endurance cutters (WHECs) built by Avondale Shipyards in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Coast Guard commissioned the Morgenthau on March 10, 1969. After 48 years of continuous service the U.S. Coast Guard decommissioned the Morgenthau on April 18, 2017, and the ship was sold to Vietnam. On 27 May 2017 the Vietnam Coast Guard commissioned the former cutter as patrol ship CSB 8020.
The Sentinel-class cutter, also known as the Fast Response Cutter due to its program name, is part of the United States Coast Guard's Deepwater program. At 154 feet (46.8 m), it is similar to, but larger than, the 123-foot (37 m) lengthened 1980s-era Island-class patrol boats that it replaces. Up to 66 vessels are to be built by the Louisiana-based firm Bollinger Shipyards, using a design from the Netherlands-based Damen Group, with the Sentinel design based on the company's Damen Stan 4708 patrol vessel. The Department of Homeland Security's budget proposal to Congress, for the Coast Guard, for 2021, stated that, in addition to 58 vessels to serve the Continental US, they requested an additional six vessels for its portion of Patrol Forces Southwest Asia.
USNS Vindicator (T-AGOS-3) was a United States Navy Stalwart-class modified tactical auxiliary general ocean surveillance ship that was in service from 1984 to 1993. Vindicator then served in the United States Coast Guard from 1994 to 2001 as the medium endurance cutter USCGC Vindicator (WMEC-3). From 2004 to 2020, she was in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fleet as the oceanographic research ship NOAAS Hiʻialakai.
The Point-class cutter was a class of 82-foot patrol vessels designed to replace the United States Coast Guard's aging 83-foot wooden hull patrol boat being used at the time. The design utilized a mild steel hull and an aluminum superstructure. The Coast Guard Yard discontinued building the 95-foot Cape-class cutter to have the capacity to produce the 82-foot Point-class patrol boat in 1960. They served as patrol vessels used in law enforcement and search and rescue along the coasts of the United States and the Caribbean. They also served in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. They were replaced by the 87-foot Marine Protector-class coastal patrol boats beginning in the late 1990s.
The Ukrainian patrol vessel Sloviansk (P190) was an Island-class patrol boat of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Originally named USCGC Cushing when in service with the United States Coast Guard, the vessel was acquired by Ukraine in 2018 and arrived in Ukraine on 21 October 2019. Sloviansk was sunk in combat on 3 March 2022 by a Russian air-to-surface missile.
Bollinger Shipyards is an American constructor of ships, workboats and patrol vessels. Its thirteen shipyards and forty drydocks are located in Louisiana and Texas. Its drydocks range in capacity from vessels of 100 tons displacement to 22,000 tons displacement. The firm was founded in 1946.
The Damen Stan 2600 is a line of patrol vessels built or designed by Netherlands shipbuilding firm the Damen Group.
USCGC Dorado (WPB-87306) was the sixth cutter of the Marine Protector-class patrol boats. Dorado was built at Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, Louisiana and commissioned in April 1999 and decommissioned on 10 March 2021. Dorado's home port was in Crescent City, California and served under Coast Guard Group Humboldt Bay in the Eleventh Coast Guard District.
USCGC Margaret Norvell (WPC-1105) is the fifth Sentinel-class cutter, based at Miami, Florida. She was launched on January 13, 2012, and delivered to the Coast Guard on March 21, 2013. She was commissioned on June 1, 2013. She was commissioned at Mardi Gras World in New Orleans, near where her namesake, Margaret Norvell, staffed a lighthouse for decades.
Joint Base Charleston is a United States military facility located partly in the City of North Charleston, South Carolina and partly in the City of Goose Creek, South Carolina. The facility is under the jurisdiction of the United States Air Force 628th Air Base Wing, Air Mobility Command (AMC).
Naval Support Activity Charleston, originally designated Naval Weapons Station Charleston, is a base of the United States Navy located on the west bank of the Cooper River, in the cities of Goose Creek and Hanahan South Carolina. The base encompasses more than 17,000 acres (69 km2) of land with 10,000 acres (40 km2) of forest and wetlands, 16-plus miles of waterfront, four deep-water piers, 38.2 miles (61.5 km) of railroad and 292 miles (470 km) of road. The current workforce numbers more than 11,000 with an additional 3,600 people in on-base family housing.
USCGC Raymond Evans is the tenth vessel in the United States Coast Guard's Sentinel-class cutter. All the vessels are named after members of the Coast Guard, or its precursor services, who are remembered for their heroism. Names had already been assigned for the first fourteen vessels, when Commander Raymond Evans died, and the USCG Commandant announced that the next Sentinel class cutter would be named after him. Joseph Napier, who was originally scheduled to be the namesake of the tenth vessel, had his name moved to the beginning of the second list of heroes names, and will now be the namesake of the fifteenth vessel.
USCGC Sea Fox was the last Marine Protector-class coastal patrol boat to be built. Her first home port was Bangor, Washington where she was part of the Coast Guard Maritime Force Protection Unit there, in company with her sister ship USCGC Sea Devil.
USCGC Sea Otter (WPB-87362) is the 61st cutter in the United States Coast Guard's successful Marine Protector class.
USCGC Sea Devil is the 68th Marine Protector-class coastal patrol boat to be built, and the first of four to be paid for by the US Navy. It is operated by the U.S. Coast Guard. Her home port is Kings Bay, Georgia, where she and her sister ship Sea Fox are assigned to one of two Maritime Force Protection Units. Their sole mission is to escort the Navy's largest submarines, the nuclear-armed Ohio class, while in and near their moorings. When first commissioned, Sea Devil and Sea Fox were assigned to the same duty at the other Maritime Force Protection Unit at Naval Base Kitsap in Washington. They left Washington for Georgia to replace the decommissioned USCGC Sea Dragon and USCGC Sea Dog.
USCGC Benjamin Dailey (WPC-1123) was the United States Coast Guard's 23rd Sentinel-class cutter. She was the first cutter of her class stationed in the Coast Guard's Eight District, with a homeport in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
USCGC Terrapin (WPB-87366) is a United States Coast Guard ship of the Marine Protector class. She is assigned to Coast Guard District 13 and is home-ported at Bellingham, Washington. Her main areas of responsibility are the San Juan Islands, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Puget Sound. Her missions include search and rescue, law enforcement, and homeland security.
The units are perhaps unique in that they have only a single mission, and they are funded by the Navy. They protect Fleet Ballistic Missile submarines while they transit on the surface, to and from their homeports. The possibility of a USS Cole style attack motivated their creation. Each unit consist of approximately 200 Coasties and is commanded by an O-5. Having CG crews and carrying CG colors and markings allows them to enforce a security zone around the subs. Both units stood up in July 2007.
The four boats which are stationed at Kitsap, WA and Kings Bay, GA submarine bases have an extra remotely operated 50 cal. m.g.
We're very sad to see the Sea Fox leave. This contract was supposed to end at 51 vessels, and now we're at 75," said Christopher Bollinger, executive vice president of new construction. "We're excited to see the workmanship continue as we start the next contract for 36 boats.