The US Coast Guard commissioned its newest Sentinel-class fast response cutter (FRC), USCGC Frederick Mann, for official entry into service during a ceremony held in Kodiak, Alaska, on Friday, February 13.
Frederick Mann is the coast guard’s 60th FRC and the third to be homeported at Coast Guard Base Kodiak. The cutter's crew will primarily serve in and around the Aleutian Islands, the Bering Sea, the Gulf of Alaska, and the North Pacific Ocean.
The cutter is designed for missions such as search and rescue; fishery patrols; drug and migrant interdiction; national defence; and ports, waterways, and coastal security.
The FRC honours the late Frederick Dean Mann, a US Coast Guard chief warrant officer who was decorated for his actions during the Guadalcanal campaign in World War II.
As with her earlier sisters, Frederick Mann was built by Bollinger Shipyards of Louisiana. She has a length of 154 feet (46.9 metres), a flank speed of 28 knots, a state of the art C4ISR suite, and a stern launch and recovery ramp for a 26-foot (7.92-metre), over-the-horizon interceptor cutter boat.
Her armament includes a 25mm autocannon and four 12.7mm machine guns.
