USCGC Sea Devil

	USCGC Sea Devil
History
United States
Name	USCGC Sea Devil
Builder	Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, Louisiana
Homeport	Kings Bay, Georgia
Identification	MMSI number: 369493397; Callsign: NSDD;
Status	in active service
General characteristics
Class and type	Marine Protector-class coastal patrol boat
Displacement	91 long tons (92 t)
Length	87 ft 0 in (26.5 m)
Beam	19 ft 5 in (5.9 m)
Draft	5 ft 7 in (1.7 m)
Propulsion	2 x MTU diesels
Speed	25 knots (46 km/h)
Range	900 nmi (1,700 km)
Endurance	5 days
Complement	10
Armament	3 × .50 caliber M2 Browning machine guns

USCGC Sea Devil is the 68th Marine Protector-class coastal patrol boat to be built, and the first of four to be paid for by the US Navy. It is operated by the U.S. Coast Guard.^[1] Her home port is Kings Bay, Georgia, where she and her sister ship Sea Fox are assigned to one of two Maritime Force Protection Units.^[2] Their sole mission is to escort the Navy's largest submarines, the nuclear-armed Ohio class, while in and near their moorings.^[1] When first commissioned, Sea Devil and Sea Fox were assigned to the same duty at the other Maritime Force Protection Unit at Naval Base Kitsap in Washington.^[3]^[4] They left Washington for Georgia to replace the decommissioned USCGC Sea Dragon and USCGC Sea Dog.^[2]

The submarines require an escort because, while they carry some of the most powerful weapons ever built, they do not mount weapons suitable to protect them from surface threats, like the speedboat that carried a bomb that damaged USS Cole.^[1]

Design

Sea Devil is slightly modified from the standard design of a Marine Protector cutter, the smallest cutter the Coast Guard currently has in service.^[5] Like her sister ships, she is 87 feet (27 m) long, displaces approximately 90 tonnes, and has a maximum speed of 25 knots (46 km/h). They are all equipped with a (water)jet-propelled pursuit boat, that is deployed and retrieved via a stern launching ramp, enabling it to be used without bringing the cutter to a halt.

Sea Devil, and the three other vessels, have been modified from the design of the Coast Guard's other Marine Protector cutters. These four vessels mount an additional gyro-stabilized remotely controlled machine gun.^[1]^[5] The main armament of the standard Marine Protector cutter are a pair of .50-caliber (12.7mm) Browning machine guns, mounted on the rail to either side of the vessel's foredeck. The long range accuracy of these weapons is low, when fired by a gunner on a pitching deck, aiming using "iron sights". Sea Devil, and the three other cutters, have a pedestal, in the middle of the foredeck, that gives their main armament a better field of fire. The gun mounted on the pedestal is the same Browning as the other guns, but gyro stabilization compensates for the pitching deck. The mount is equipped with multiple cameras, enabling the gun aimer on the bridge to focus the gun's sights on a distant target, even at night, or when visibility is impaired by smoke, or fog.

To complete their missions these four ships carry a larger crew. Where a standard Marine Protector cutter deploys with a crew of ten, these vessels deploy with a crew of fifteen.^[4]^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Chuck Hill (2012-10-29). "CG Maritime Force Protection Units". Archived from the original on 2018-10-02. Retrieved 2017-03-29. The units are perhaps unique in that they have only a single mission, and they are funded by the Navy. They protect Fleet Ballistic Missile submarines while they transit on the surface, to and from their homeports. The possibility of a USS Cole style attack motivated their creation.
^ ^a ^b "PHOTO RELEASE: Coast Guard cutters Sea Dog, Sea Dragon decommissioned in St. Marys, Georgia" (Press release). Jacksonville, Florida: PADET Jacksonville, United States Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security. 29 May 2024. Retrieved 30 May 2024.
^ Ed Friedrich (2008-06-20), Enlisting a Coast Guard Cutter to Protect Navy Subs, Kitsap Sun, archived from the original on 2016-10-02, retrieved 2017-03-29, The Navy believed the need was so great that they went out and purchased our cutter for that, said Lt. j.g. Alanna Kaltsas, the boats first skipper, after Fridays commissioning ceremony on a rolling lawn above the bay with the Olympic Mountains as a backdrop.
^ ^a ^b Mike Barber (2008-06-19). "New patrol boat to protect subs in Sound: Coast Guard cutter is first vessel assigned to provide security for Navy". Seattle Post Intelligencer. Retrieved 2017-03-29.
^ ^a ^b HMC James T. Flynn Jr., USNR(ret) (2014-06-23). "U. S. Coast Guard: Small Cutters and Patrol Boats 1915 - 2012" (PDF). US Coast Guard. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-05-10. Retrieved 2024-05-29. The four boats which are stationed at Kitsap, WA and Kings Bay, GA submarine bases have an extra remotely operated 50 cal. m.g. Alt URL