March 21, 2025 —
Coast Guard Cutter Spencer, at Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore, prepares for sea trials at the conclusion of its service life extension work. U.S. Coast Guard photo.
Coast Guard Cutter Spencer, a 270-foot Famous-class medium endurance cutter, departed Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore on March 8, 2025, having successfully completed its 20-month service life extension program (SLEP).
Managed by the Coast Guard’s In-Service Vessel Sustainment (ISVS) Program, the SLEP ensures mission readiness, improves reliability and reduces maintenance costs of the Coast Guard’s operational fleet. 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 in the most cost-effective manner.
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, will allow the cutter to operate for an additional decade, sustaining operational capability as the Coast Guard transitions to the offshore patrol cutter (OPC) fleet.
“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.”
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.
For more information: In-Service Vessel Sustainment Program page and Offshore Patrol Cutter Program page