USCG Waesche structurally enhanced
Structural enhancement work on the US Coast Guard’s second National Security Cutter (NSC), USCG Waesche, has been completed at Vigor Marine’s Seattle shipyard.
The vessel is currently moored at Coast Guard Base Seattle and is scheduled to depart for its Alamada, California, homeport later in September 2018.
Structural enhancement work on the cutter addressed fatigue life concerns identified in the original NSC design. The first NSC, USCG Bertholf, completed similar work in September 2017.
It was determined during the early stages of NSC production that the cutters’ design would need structural modifications in some areas in order to achieve a 30-year design fatigue life. The coast guard and the shipbuilder completed additional analyses and engineering efforts to address the fatigue life concerns, resulting in the incorporation of structural enhancements into regular production during the construction of the third NSC, Stratton.
With the completion of activities on Waesche all NSCs have been equipped with the required structural enhancements.
Bertholf and Waesche are two of four NSCs based in Alameda, California. Two NSCs are based in Charleston, South Carolina. The seventh and eighth NSCs, Kimball and Midgett, will be stationed in Honolulu. Kimball is scheduled for delivery in autumn 2018 and Midgett is planned for delivery in 2019.
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