Tag Archives: RIMPAC 2024

Bertholfs Hitting it Hard

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The Coast Guard only has 10 Legend (Bertholf) class National Security Cutters to its name.

Ordered starting in 2005 to replace the long-serving Vietnam-era 378-foot Hamilton-class cutters that had almost 50 years on their hulls, the Bertholfs are the largest non-logistics/icebreaker cutters the service has ever had, pushing 418 feet oal with a 4,600-ton displacement.

They have a lot going for them, with an economical CODAG engineering plant that allows for a 12,000nm range when on patrol and bursts of “over 28 knots,” they have extensive helicopter/UAV support facilities and a modest self-defense capability.

When it comes to sensors, while they aren’t in the same category as a true frigate, they have decent air/surface-search radars, IFF/TACAN, a SLQ-32 EW suite, and a sonar that reportedly has mine-hunting capabilities.

While great for busting smugglers and policing duties, the NSCs are armed akin to an LCS…

Importantly, they have all the goodies needed to operate as part of a modern naval task force including Link 11 and Link 16 and underway replenishment gear, allowing them to both tank and transfer from larger vessels and send to smaller ones– which allows them a “mother ship” role to smaller cutters on a deployment.

As some proof in the pudding, three of the service’s Bertholfs were recently underway in three different parts of the world, adding a speck of white to otherwise haze gray formations.

USCGC Midgett (WMSL-757), taking part in RIMPAC ’24 off Hawaii, was captured in a great shot last week conducting a dual transfer with the Italian Thaon di Revel-class offshore patrol vessel ITS Raimondo Montecuccoli (P432) from the Royal Canadian Navy replenishment ship MV Asterix.

Photo by Royal Canadian Navy Sailor First Class Brendan McLoughlin.

Meanwhile, the crew of the USCGC Stone (WMSL 758) returned to their home port in North Charleston last week following a 63-day patrol in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea in support of homeland defense and counterdrug operations.

During her deployment, she steamed in tandem with U.S. Second Fleet and Canadian Joint Task Force-Atlantic maritime forces.

Canadian Halifax-class frigate HMCS Ville de Québec (FFH 332) and U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stone (WMSL 758) steam in formation, on June 9, 2024, while underway in the Atlantic Ocean. Stone and Ville de Québec operated in the Atlantic Ocean in the U.S. 2nd Fleet area of operations in support of maritime stability and security in the region. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Ensign Alana Kickhoefer)

Likewise, the crew of the USCGC James (WMSL 754) returned to their home port in North Charleston last week after completing a 98-day patrol in the South Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.

While down south, James worked along with the George Washington Carrier Group, called in several Latin American ports, conducted a live fire exercise, and steamed alongside ships from Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil.

Legend-class cutter USCGC James (WSML 754), left, and Brazilian navy Niterói-class frigates União (F 45) and Independência (F 44) operate in formation with Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) as part of a bilateral exercise between the U.S. and the Brazilian navy in the Atlantic Ocean, May 18, 2024. Porter is deployed as part of Southern Seas 2024 which seeks to enhance capability, improve interoperability, and strengthen maritime partnerships with countries throughout the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility through joint, multinational, and interagency exchanges and cooperation. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class David C. Fines)

Besides these three Bertholfs, keep in mind that a fourth member of the class, USCGC Waesche (WMSL-751), is still underway in the Westpac and has been operating in the South China Sea with white hulled partners from South Korea, Japan, and the Philippines.

(U.S. Coast Guard photo by Ensign Julia VanLuven)

Going further, a fifth Bertholf, USCGC Kimball (WMSL-756), has been bird-dogging a Chinese task force that was poking around the Aleutians earlier this month.

That’s five very busy hulls out of the ten the Coast Guard has. Talk about punching above its weight class.

All Hands, Bury the Dead

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So this slow-motion funeral happened this week:

Official caption: “Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam residents watch as the decommissioned amphibious assault ship ex-USS Tarawa (LHA 1), is escorted out of Pearl Harbor by the Safeguard-class rescue and salvage ship USNS Grasp (T-ARS 51) during Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2024, July 16.”

(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Courtney Strahan)

Laid up in Pearl’s Middle Loch since she retired in 2009 after 33 years of hard service, plans fell through to turn Tarawa into the first Navy amphibious ship museum once she was removed from a Category B reserve asset, and she was stricken from the Naval List earlier this year.

Of course, the old Tarawa is only participating in RIMPAC as a target ship for the big upcoming general SINKEX, which for many of the countries taking part is an extremely rare event.

It is rarer still to have a weapons-free bite at something the size of the mighty cold warrior Tarawa.

I mean, it’s not often that a 40,000-ton aircraft carrier-sized warship is expended in a gunnery drill. It has only happened before in the still largely classified USS America (CV-66) tests in 2005– which was used to engineer resiliency in every U.S. flattop ever since– and in Tarawa’s sistership USS Belleau Wood’s sinking in 2006.

It is a bit sad, honestly, as Tarawa, laid down on 15 November 1971 at Pascagoula, was the first big-deck ‘phib that combined the dock of an LPD with the helicopter capability of an LPH and supersized it into a ship that is the same size as a WWII Essex-class fleet carrier.

Artist’s conception of a very preliminary design of the LHA, released by DoD, 15 February 1967. USN 1120262

USS Tarawa as commissioned, with bow 5-inch MK45 guns, which were later removed. At the time she was constructed, she was the largest ship that Ingalls had built. 

Since Tarawa, the Navy built (and retired) four of her sisters, followed by eight updated Wasp-class LHDs, and are now planning 11 America-class LHAs which all show the same lineage.