USCGC Bertholf (WMSL-750)

USCGC Bertholf (WMSL-750)
History
United States
Namesake:	Commodore Ellsworth P. Bertholf, USCG
Ordered:	January 2001
Builder:	Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, Pascagoula, Mississippi
Cost:	$641 million
Laid down:	March 29, 2005
Launched:	September 29, 2006
Christened:	November 11, 2006
Commissioned:	August 4, 2008
Homeport:	Integrated Support Command Alameda
Motto:	"Legends Begin Here"
Status:	Commissioned
Badge:
General characteristics
Type:	National Security Cutter
Displacement:	4500 LT
Length:	418 feet (127.40 meters)
Beam:	54 feet (16.46 meters)
Draft:	22.5 feet (6.86 meters)
Propulsion:	Combined diesel and gas 2 × 7.400 kW diesel engines 1 × 22.000 kW gas turbine engine
Speed:	28+ knots
Range:	12,000 nm
Complement:	113 (14 officers + 99 enlisted) and can carry up to 167 depending on mission
Sensors and processing systems:	EADS 3D TRS-16 AN/SPS-75 Air Search Radar SPQ-9B Fire Control Radar AN/SPS-73 Surface Search Radar AN/SLQ-32
Electronic warfare & decoys:	AN/SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare System 2 SRBOC/ 2 x NULKA countermeasures chaff/rapid decoy launcher
Armament:	1 x MK 110 57mm gun a variant of the Bofors 57 mm gun and Gunfire Control System 1 × 20 mm Block 1B Phalanx Close-In Weapons System 4 × .50 caliber machine guns 2 × M240B 7.62 mm machine guns
Armor:	Ballistic protection for main gun
Aircraft carried:	2 x MH-65C Dolphin MCH, or 4 x VUAV or 1 x MH-65C Dolphin MCH and 2 x VUAV
Aviation facilities:	50-by-80-foot (15 m × 24 m) flight deck, hangar for all aircraft

USCGC Bertholf (WMSL-750) is the first Legend-class maritime security cutter of the United States Coast Guard. She is named for Commodore Ellsworth P. Bertholf, fourth Commandant of both the Revenue Cutter Service and Coast Guard.

In 2005, construction began at Northrop Grumman's Ship Systems Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi. She was launched on September 29, 2006, christened November 11, 2006, and commissioned on August 4, 2008. The cutter's home port is Alameda, California. Bertholf was the first to fire the Bofors 57 mm gun aboard a U.S. vessel on the 11th of February 2008.[1]

On March 3, 2016, Bertholf responded to a sighting off the Pacific Coast of Panama of a semi-submersible narco-submarine, reported by a P-3 Orion. The semi-submersible surrendered to a boarding party launched from Bertholf, and four suspects were captured along with 6 tons of cocaine. The boarding party then sunk the semi-submersible. During the 2012 RIMPAC exercises Bertholf detected and tracked missile threats and also provided naval gunfire support for troops ashore during the training exercise, and demonstrated the capability of being able to move with other naval forces and being able to do other defense operations.

Bertholf is the lead ship of the National Security Cutter design and the first large ship to be built under the Coast Guard's multi-year Deepwater acquisitions project. The NSCs are to replace the fleet's aging 1960s 378-foot Hamilton-class cutters.