The Marine Protector-class patrol boat is a type of coastal

patrol boat A patrol boat (also referred to as a patrol craft, patrol ship, or patrol vessel) is a relatively small naval ship, naval vessel generally designed for Coastal defence and fortification, coastal defence, Border control, border security, or law ...

of the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

. The vessels with hull based on the Stan 2600 design by

Damen Group The Damen Group is a Dutch defence, shipbuilding, and engineering conglomerate company based in Gorinchem, Netherlands. Though it is a major international group doing business in 120 countries, it remains a private family-owned company. Dame ...

. The vessels were built by

Bollinger Shipyards 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 t ...

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.

History

The Coast Guard placed its original order in 1999 for 50 boats, which were delivered by mid-2002. Several additional orders brought the class to a total of 77 ships. Seventy-five were delivered under the original Coast Guard contract with Bollinger, with the last, , being completed in October 2009. Two of these were delivered to the Maritime Squadron of Malta. A separate Coast Guard contract built two additional patrol boats for the Yemen Coast Guard. The Marine Protector class replaced the 82-foot , which had smaller accommodations and had to stop to deploy its pursuit inflatable boat via crane. The last Point-class cutter was decommissioned in 2003. In 2020, the Department of Homeland Security began to decommission the fleet, with eight Marine Protector cutters replaced by newer Sentinel class cutters. In May 2021, the United States announced that it would send three decommissioned ships to the Lebanese Navy In 2022, three decommissioned ships, ''Albacore'', ''Cochito'', and ''Gannet'' were donated to the Uruguayan Navy under the Excess Defense Articles program. As part of the transfer deal, Uruguay spent $4.99 million to refurbish the ships, on spare parts, and to train their crews. They were renamed ''Rio Arapey'', ''Rio De La Plata'', and ''Rio Yaguaron''. In 2023, the United States delivered two former Coast Guard Marine Protector-class ships to the Ghanaian Navy. They were commissioned as GNS ''Aflao'' and GNS ''Half'' ''Assini''. In May 2023, the United States government pledged to provide the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

at least two Marine Protector vessels, as well as two Island-class patrol boat and three Lockheed C-130H Hercules during President

Bongbong Marcos Ferdinand "Bongbong" Romualdez Marcos Jr. (, , ; born September 13, 1957), commonly referred to by the initials BBM or PBBM, is a Filipino politician who has served as the 17th president of the Philippines since 2022. He is the second child ...

' visit to

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

The transferred vessels will be operated by the

Philippine Navy The Philippine Navy (PN) () is the naval warfare service branch of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It has an estimated strength of 24,500 active service personnel, including the 10,300-strong Philippine Marine Corps. It operates 91 combat ...

General characteristics

Missions include combating drug smuggling, illegal immigration, marine fisheries enforcement and

search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

support. Since the

September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, many have had a

homeland security Homeland security is an American national security term for "the national effort to ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards where American interests, aspirations, and ways of life can thrive" to ...

mission in the form of ports, waterways and coastal security (PWCS) patrols. Boarding parties can be launched while the vessel is underway through the cutter's stern launching ramp. The attached rigid hull inflatable boat (RHIB) has been upgraded in an effort to increase speed and sea state sustainability for boarding parties and rescue and assistance teams. The stern launching system requires only a single crew member to remain on deck to launch or retrieve the boarding party. The vessels consume approximately 165 gallons of diesel per hour at their maximum speed of . Like all new U.S. Coast Guard vessels, the Marine Protector class is designed to accommodate crews of mixed gender with five separate small berthing spaces accommodating standard crews of ten with maximum berthing for 12. and are assigned to guard a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

submarine base in Kings Bay, Georgia, replacing the decommissioned and at that station. and earlier guarded another submarine base in Bangor, Washington. An additional machine gun operated by remote control was added to all four for this duty.

Boats in class

References

External links

Globalsecurity.org
– WPB 87' Marine Protector Class
U.S. Coast Guard: 87-foot Coastal Patrol Boat (WPB) – Marine Protector ClassBollinger Shipyards: USCG 87' “Marine Protector Class” Patrol Boats (CPB) > Principle Characteristics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marine Protector class Patrol vessels of the United States