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Coast Guard Assets

Explore the aircraft, cutters and boats used by the Coast Guard to conduct various missions throughout the world.

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Coast Guard Cutter Flying Fish, an 87-foot patrol boat homeported in Virginia Beach, Virginia, steams north alongside the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel off Virginia Beach, Feb. 15, 2018. The cutter’s crew of 12 primarily conducts search and rescue and marine fisheries enforcement missions in the lower Chesapeake Bay and off Virginia’s coast.

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Coast Guard Cutter Flying Fish steams north alongside the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel

Coast Guard Cutter Flying Fish, an 87-foot patrol boat homeported in Virginia Beach, Virginia, steams north alongside the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel off Virginia Beach, Feb. 15, 2018. The cutter’s crew of 12 primarily conducts search and rescue and marine fisheries enforcement missions in the lower Chesapeake Bay and off Virginia’s coast. (U.S. Coast Guard photos by Petty Officer Corinne Zilnicki/Released)

Summary
The 87-foot Marine Protector class is an innovative, multi-mission class of vessel capable of performing search and rescue, law enforcement, fishery patrols, drug interdiction, illegal immigrant interdiction and homeland security duties up to 200 miles offshore

Description

The 87-foot Marine Protector class offers numerous improvements over the former 82-foot Point-class vessels, including improved seakeeping abilities, enhanced habitability and compliance with current and projected environmental protection laws. The Marine Protector class also employs an innovative stern launch and recovery system using aluminum-hulled cutter boats propelled by inboard diesel-powered waterjets. The vastly larger pilothouse is equipped with an integrated bridge system, including an ECDIS (electronic chart display system), which interfaces with surface search radars used by U.S. warships.