USS Flagstaff (PGH-1)
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As USCGC Flagstaff (WPBH 1) undergoing Coast Guard evaluations.
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | USS Flagstaff |
| Laid down: | 1 June 1966 |
| Launched: | 15 July 1966 |
| Commissioned: |
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| Decommissioned: | 30 September 1978 |
| Fate: | Returned to USN |
| Status: | Scrapped |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | none |
| Type: | Hydrofoil gunboat |
| Displacement: | 67 long tons (68 t) |
| Length: |
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| Beam: | 21 ft 6 in (6.55 m) |
| Draft: |
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| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | Max: at least 45 kn (52 mph; 83 km/h) (foil-borne) |
| Complement: | 12 (1974); 13 (1977) |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
Navigation-type radar |
| Armament: | 1 × 40 mm Bofors AA gun, 1 × 81 mm (3.2 in) mortar, 2 × .50 in (13 mm) M2 Browning machine gun |
USS Flagstaff (PGH-1) was the only Flagstaff-class patrol gunboat (hydrofoil) and was acquired by the United States Navy because of her relatively low cost and very high speed. She was later loaned by the Navy to the U.S. Coast Guard, as USCGC Flagstaff (WPBH-1). The Coast Guard’s interest in the craft was the craft’s speed and its ability to interdict smugglers and other suspicious craft approaching the U.S. coast.
In the mid-1970s, the Coast Guard explored options to replace the aging 95 ft (29 m) cutters. There was also considerable interest in developing new "high-speed ways" to combat narcotics smuggling by sea, conduct search and rescue operations, fisheries enforcement, and marine environmental protection. The Coast Guard, of course, looked for the most inexpensive way to test new platforms and when the Navy offered the use of some of their hydrofoils at "virtually no cost", the Coast Guard jumped on the opportunity. The Navy loaned the Coast Guard both USS Flagstaff (PGH-1) and USS High Point (PCH-1) for a short period of time beginning in late 1974. Flagstaff was scheduled for evaluation first and High Point was scheduled for evaluation in early 1975. While under Coast Guard ownership, Flagstaff was armed only with small arms.
Flagstaff was developed by the Navy as an experimental vessel and was built by Grumman Aerospace Corporation of Bethpage, New York. She was delivered to the Navy in September 1968. After an operational evaluation period, she was deployed to South Vietnam with Tucumcari. The two ships formed Coastal Squadron 3, and were based in Cam Ranh Bay. She conducted patrol missions there until 1970.Flagstaff and Tucumcari were too mechanically complex for the repair facilities in Vietnam, and as a result were ultimately withdrawn from combat. Upon her return to the U.S. in 1970, she was assigned to the Amphibious Forces of the Pacific Fleet where she participated in numerous readiness trials and training exercises and was also used as a test-bed for various craft subsystems, such as the Navy's Advanced Hydrofoil Development Program. Flagstaff Plank owner.
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