The US Coast Guard has taken delivery of its 59th Sentinel-class fast response cutter from Bollinger Shipyards in Florida.
The US Coast Guard has taken delivery of its 59th Sentinel-class fast response cutter from Bollinger Shipyards in Florida.
The milestone aligns with a 2008 program to replace the service’s aging patrol boats, including the Island-class vessels operational since the 1980s.
Designated as the USCGC Earl Cunningham (WPC-1159), the new platform will serve as the second of three Sentinel cutters to be stationed in Kodiak.
It will then be transferred to an under-construction center in Seward, where future Sentinels will also be homeported upon the site’s completion.
The Cunningham is named after a guardsman recipient of the Gold Life Saving Medal for rescuing stranded fishermen on Lake Michigan in 1936 while off duty.
USCGC Bernard C. Webber (WPC-1101), the first Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutter. Photo: Petty Officer 3rd Class Cory Rowland/US Coast GuardThe Sentinel System
The Sentinel fast response cutter measures 47 meters (154 feet) long and has a beam of 8 meters (26 feet).
It has two MTU engines with 5,800 horsepower each and a single bow thruster with 101 horsepower.
The vessel was developed for missions requiring a straight five-day deployment and maneuvers at speeds over 28 knots (52 kilometers/32 miles per hour).
Its design can accommodate more than 20 personnel, has space for small boats, and offers integration of crew-served shipboard machine guns or mounted heavy machine guns.
The US Coast Guard is now awaiting more deliveries to complete the 67-hull Sentinel fleet it had contracted from Bollinger.
Before the Cunningham’s arrival, the service accepted the 58th Sentinel, the USCGC John Witherspoon (WPC-1158), in Key West last November.
