Third NSC To Be Delivered in 2011

By JOHN C. MARCARIO, Assistant Editor

The third National Security Cutter (NSC), Stratton, will be delivered to the Coast Guard in the summer of 2011.

“It’s a state-of-the-art ship, it’s a quality ship, and it’s had industry-leading practices used to build this ship. It’s truly taking the Coast Guard into the 21st century,” Derek Murphy, Northrop Grumman NSC 3 ship program manager, said during a media briefing at the Sea-Air-Space Exposition May 3.

Murphy said the company spent a year researching the most economical and efficient way to build NSC 3.

“The ship is built completely different than the first two,” he said.

The first two NSC's encountered problems with the decking, which have attributed to design flaws.

“They were built exactly how the contract was written,” Murphy said.

Those problems are being addressed, he said, and modifications were made to the design of NSC 3 to avoid similar issues.

Stratton is being built by Northrop Grumman at its Pascagoula, Miss., shipyard. It is 50 percent complete. The second NSC, Waesche will be commissioned May 7 at Coast Guard Island, Alameda, Calif. The first, Bertholf, was commissioned in 2008. Northrop and the Coast Guard have begun contract negations for the fourth NSC.