What are your top acquisition priorities? KORN: To recapitalize our major cutter fleet. That consists of the National Security Cutter (NSC) and the Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC) that will replace the High Endurance Cutters (HECs) and Medium Endurance Cutters (MECs). The 378-foot HECs were designed to last a quarter century and now they're approaching half a century of age and they are starting to show it. They've endured 50 years of extended at-sea conditions, often in high sea states in the Pacific, the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. We're losing hundreds of patrol days per year due to breakdowns. The NSC program has stable requirements, predictable costs and is delivering great ships. Bertholf and Waesche are operational and proving to be extremely capable and relevant ships to address current and future maritime threats to the economy and sovereignty of the United States. Command and control; air search radar; and chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear crew protection capability make this ship valuable for counterterrorism and natural disaster response operations.
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