The U.S. Coast Guard's innovative, 140-foot fast-response cutter has reached a systems requirements milestone resulting in the ship being one step closer to construction commencement. The fast-response cutter is being built by Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS), a joint venture between Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, under the Integrated Deepwater System Program. The purpose of the systems requirements review was to present the ship concept to the Coast Guard and to confirm the customer requirements have been sufficiently developed, so the ICGS team can proceed to design development.

The cutter will be interoperable with other Deepwater assets and will operate at 30+ knots, providing exceptional response and reaction capability. Typical missions will include near-shore fisheries patrol, migrant and drug interdiction, barrier patrols and augmenting patrols in areas of concern. The systems requirements review, held at Northrop Grumman Ship Systems sector's shipyard in New Orleans, included demonstrations on the fast-response cutter's hull, mechanical and electrical design, the command, Control, Communications and Computers, intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) suite and logistics support. ICGS also presented information on the ship's preliminary operational plans. As a result of the systems requirements review process, the Fast-Response Cutter program now moves into the preliminary design phase, with the customer review scheduled for this August.