US Coast Guard cutter John Witherspoon arrives at homeport in Kodiak, Alaska

The crew of the US Coast Guard Sentinel-class fast response cutter (FRC) USCGC John Witherspoon arrived at the cutter’s new homeport in Kodiak, Alaska, on Tuesday, January 28.

The cutter is scheduled to be commissioned during a ceremony in April 2025.

Witherspoon is the first of three FRCs scheduled to be homeported at Coast Guard Base Kodiak and is now the fourth FRC currently based in Alaska. While these ships will be homeported in Kodiak, they will operate throughout the 17th Coast Guard District to include the US Arctic, the Gulf of Alaska, and the Bering Sea.

The new FRCs arriving in Alaska are designed to replace the coast guard's fleet of 110-foot (34-metre) cutters that are projected to be decommissioned this year.

The coast guard is currently scheduled to have six FRCs operating throughout Alaska by the end of 2025 to reinforce US maritime boundaries and shorten on-scene response times to support search and rescue efforts and better serve the people of Alaska.

As with its earlier sisters, Witherspoon 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. Armament includes a 25mm autocannon and four 12.7mm machine guns.

The FRC was built by Bollinger Shipyards of Louisiana. It was delivered to the coast guard in late 2024.