USCG’s Famous-class cutter wraps up life extension program

The US Coast Guard’s ship Spencer, an 82-meter Famous-class medium endurance cutter, departed the coast guard’s yard in Baltimore on March 8, 2025, having completed its 20-month service life extension program (SLEP).  

Managed by the Coast Guard’s In-Service Vessel Sustainment (ISVS) Program, the SLEP is developed to ensure mission readiness, improve reliability, and reduce maintenance costs of the US Coast Guard’s operational fleet.

Specifically, the program extends the service life of legacy cutters by replacing obsolete, unsupportable, or maintenance-intensive systems, enabling the cutter to continue meeting mission demands.

The coast guard noted that the SLEP  for the medium endurance cutters includes updates and replacements of electrical power generation and distribution systems, main diesel propulsion engines, and gun weapon systems.

Spencer is the first of six medium endurance cutters scheduled to receive all major system overhauls, including new main propulsion engines.

This intensive work, which began in July 2023, is expected to allow the cutter to operate for an additional decade, sustaining operational capability as the US Coast Guard transitions to the offshore patrol cutter (OPC) fleet. 

To remind, last week, the coast guard accepted delivery of the 59th fast response cutter (FRC), Earl Cunningham.

Five additional medium endurance cutters – Legare, Campbell, Forward, Escanaba, and Tahoma – will complete SLEPs by 2030. Seneca and Harriet Lane previously served as prototypes for the electrical and structural work but did not receive new engines.

Harriet Lane also served as the prototype for the MK38 gun weapon system.  

“These cutters have been essential for Coast Guard operations for over four decades, conducting missions from drug interdiction and fisheries enforcement to search and rescue,” said Kenneth King, ISVS program manager.

“Investing in their sustainment is critical to ensuring these cutters remain operationally relevant and capable of executing the service’s most demanding missions until the next generation – the OPCs – are fully deployed.”