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Home > News Releases > News 2016
Acquisition Update: Coast Guard Commissions 19th Fast Response Cutter
Nov. 21, 2016
Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul F. Zukunft gives the order for the crewmembers of Coast Guard Cutter Rollin Fritch to man their stations and lay aboard at the ship’s commissioning in Cape May, New Jersey, Nov. 19, 2016. The Rollin Fritch will conduct multiple Coast Guard missions, including search and rescue and enforcing fisheries laws. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Seth Johnson.
The Coast Guard commissioned its 19th fast response cutter (FRC), Coast Guard Cutter Rollin Fritch, at its Cape May, New Jersey, homeport Nov. 19.
The cutter is the first FRC based in the Coast Guard’s Fifth District, which includes coastal and inland waters from North Carolina’s southern border to parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The second FRC to be based in Cape May, the Lawrence Lawson, is scheduled for commissioning in early 2017.
The cutter is named after Seaman 1st Class Rollin Fritch, who died Jan. 8, 1945, during a battle off the coast of Luzon in the Philippines. Fritch, a member of a gun crew aboard the USS Callaway, bravely remained at his post as an enemy aircraft collided with the vessel. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star Medal.
The 154-foot FRC is designed to patrol closer to shore and is replacing the 1980s-era Island-class 110-foot patrol boats. The cutters feature advanced command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment; improved habitability and seakeeping; and over-the-horizon cutter boat deployment to reach vessels of interest. The FRCs conduct critical missions, including drug and migrant interdiction; ports, waterways, and coastal security; fishery patrols; and national defense.
The Coast Guard has ordered 38 out of 58 FRCs planned. Nineteen are in service: one in Cape May; six in Key West, Florida; six in Miami; and six in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The FRC is complemented operationally by the offshore capabilities of the national security cutter and the extended range and endurance of the offshore patrol cutter.