Reporter's Notebook

Bertholf’s big brother

Northrop Grumman gets the prize this year for its collection of ship models on display downstairs, and one of them especially caught my eye: A gray-hulled version of the familiar Coast Guard National Security Cutter, augmented for foreign sales and dubbed the International Patrol Frigate.

Northrop’s model has a SPY-1F radar – a smaller-ship version of the Aegis sensors carried aboard U.S. Navy cruisers and destroyers – and a much heavier weapons load than the base-model NSC. It carries a Mk 41 Vertical Launch Cell aft of the standard 57mm deck gun; a SeaRAM close-in weapons system on the superstructure above the flight deck; and Harpoon missile racks on the fantail. The International Patrol Frigate model does away with the Coast Guard’s stern boat deck, although it does still have pockets amidships on either side to launch and recover small boats. It also has the same combined-diesel-and-gas powerplant as the Coast Guard’s ship, which includes twin diesel engines and a single gas turbine.

Northrop Grumman spokeswoman Margaret Mitchell-Jones stressed there is no U.S. Navy requirement for a ‘roided-up national security cutter, but that “we’ve had some international interest for things that were not spec’ed by the Coast Guard.”