Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Ingalls Shipbuilding division’s fourth National Security Cutter, Hamilton (WMSL 753), sailed away from the shipyard on Saturday afternoon. The U.S. Coast Guard ship will be commissioned on Dec. 6 in Charleston, S.C.
Ingalls Shipbuilding President Brian Cuccias said:
The U.S. Coast Guard is receiving our finest NSC to date.
We are performing well in this program, and we expect to continue improving our learning over the next four ships in the class. This program shows what can be accomplished with serial production in terms of affordability and quality. We wish Capt. Douglas Fears and his crew the best, and I congratulate our NSC team of shipbuilders on a job well done.
The ship was delivered to the Coast Guard on Sept. 15, 2014, and the crew of Hamilton officially took possession of the ship. At the end of the summer, Ingalls’ test and trials team successfully completed acceptance trials on the ship by conducting extensive testing of the propulsion, anchor handling, steering and combat systems for the Board of Inspection and Survey.
Many shipbuilders gathered to watch Hamilton leave Pascagoula for her final sea voyage to her eventual homeport in Charleston.
Ingalls has delivered four NSCs, and three more are currently under construction. A seventh NSC, Kimball (WMSL 756), is scheduled to begin construction in early 2015.
Legend-class NSCs are the flagships of the Coast Guard’s cutter fleet. Designed to replace the 378‐foot Hamilton-class High-Endurance Cutters that entered service during the 1960s, they are 418 feet long with a 54-foot beam and displace 4,500 tons with a full load. They have a top speed of 28 knots, a range of 12,000 miles, an endurance of 60 days and a crew of 120.
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Press release, Image: HII