The fifth Legend-class National Security Cutter (NSC) completed its acceptance trials in the Gulf of Mexico, shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) announced on Monday.
James (WMSL-754) underwent two days of testing under the auspices of Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV) and “conducted extensive testing of the propulsion, electrical, damage control, anchor handling, small boat operations and combat systems. The team also completed a full-power propulsion run on James,” according to the release from the company.
The acceptance trials come ahead of an expected delivery to the U.S. Coast Guard this summer.
James will be the fifth National Security Cutter delivered to the service with three others under construction — Munro (WMSL-755), Kimball (WMSL-756) and Midgett (WMSL-757).
The total class of eight cutters are designed to replace the decades-old Hamilton-class high endurance cutters which have started to decommission out of the service.
The 4,500-ton new NSCs are designed to operate for up to 60 days at sea and can be forward for up to 230 days at a time with rotational crewing.
Last month, the service awarded HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss. a $499.8 million construction contract for the final NSC.
