Coast Guard Special Mission Training Center News

Most people who encounter the Coast Guard near shore will get a good look at a Response Boat-Small (RB-S). With more than 400 boats in operation, the RB-S is the largest vessel class in the Coast Guard’s fleet. The boats are in constant use, from life-saving to law enforcement and homeland security missions. But the redoubtable RB-S is approaching the end of its service life and the the Coast Guard’s Acquisition Directorate has launched an ambitious project to replace this important asset. The RB-S II will be one of the largest boat buys of its kind.

QinetiQ subsidiary Foster-Miller Inc, has been awarded a $1 million contract to further develop its advanced Boat Trap system by the United States Department of Defense Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, working closely with the US Coast Guard. Designed to bolster US harbor security and protect coastal military bases abroad, Boat Trap is a non lethal, ballistic net that is deployed from a helicopter into the path of a threatening speedboat traveling at high speed. It is designed to entangle the propeller, causing the craft to immediately stop. Port security and ship protection has become a central issue in the war on terror and recent assessments of US port security has highlighted the risk from terrorists' using speed boats as a mode of attack.