USCGC Olivia Hooker is the second of three FRCs to be homeported in St. Petersburg, FL
Below is a news release from Bollinger Shipyards.
BOLLINGER SHIPYARDS DELIVERS FRC 1161 OLIVIA HOOKER TO U.S. COAST GUARD
USCGC Olivia Hooker to be homeported in Pascagoula, Miss.
LOCKPORT, La., — (October 23, 2025) – Bollinger Shipyards (“Bollinger”) today announced the recent delivery of the USCGC Olivia Hooker at Coast Guard Sector Key West. This is the 61st Fast Response Cutter (FRC) delivered under the U.S. Coast Guard’s current program and the 187th vessel built by Bollinger for the U.S. Coast Guard over a 40-year partnership. The Olivia Hooker will be homeported in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
“We are honored to deliver the Olivia Hooker to the U.S. Coast Guard, continuing our proud tradition of providing high-quality, mission-ready vessels,” said Bollinger President & CEO Ben Bordelon. “The FRC platform has proven itself time and again as a cornerstone of the Coast Guard’s fleet, excelling in a wide range of operational conditions. We’re confident this vessel will serve its crew well in their mission of defending our nation’s national security interests over a vast and challenging area of responsibility.”
Last month, Bollinger announced that the U.S. Coast Guard awarded the company 10 additional FRCs. The award was supported by the historic $25 billion funding included in President Trump’s recently enacted One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which provided $1 billion for additional FRCs and strengthened the Coast Guard in support of its Force Design 2028 initiative.
“With this award, the Coast Guard is doubling down on a proven platform and a proven team,” said Bordelon at the time of the award. “Our workforce has delivered nearly 200 cutters, including 60 FRCs, in our more than 40-year partnership with the Coast Guard. That performance is no accident. It reflects the dedication, precision and pride of the men and women of Bollinger, and our shared commitment to the Coast Guard’s mission.”
“This decision reflects our unwavering confidence in your capabilities, expertise, and longstanding commitment to excellence within the maritime industry,” said the U.S. Coast Guard in its award notification to Bollinger. “We continue to be particularly impressed by your track record in shipbuilding, your innovative approaches to maintaining a sustainable design, and your commitment to adhering to the highest standards of safety and compliance…This contract option award is a testament to the trust we place in your abilities and to the shared vision we hold for the future of our fleet. We look forward to a productive and successful partnership and to the delivery of ten world-class ships that will advance our mission and further strengthen our operational capabilities.”
To date, Bollinger has delivered 61 FRCs and had been under contract to build 67 vessels, with the final FRC previously scheduled for delivery in 2028. With the most recent award, the total program has increased to 77 vessels, extending the production line by approximately three years and ensuring uninterrupted deliveries to meet operational demand.
Earlier this year, to protect the taxpayer and preserve hard-won efficiencies, Bollinger went “at-risk” to sustain production momentum. The company procured long-lead materials and maintained full payroll to avoid costly restarts and schedule gaps. That proactive decision reduced risk, preserved skilled jobs, and enabled the government to stretch its investment further.
The FRC program continues to be a powerful economic engine. Since its inception, it has generated over $2 billion in material spending, directly supports more than 650 jobs in Southeast Louisiana, and has indirectly created 1,690 jobs from operations and capital investment, with an annual GDP impact of $202 million, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration’s data on the economic importance of the U.S. shipbuilding and repair industry. Each FRC comprises over 271,000 distinct items and approximately 282 million components and parts, sourced from 965 suppliers across 37 states, demonstrating the program’s broad national industrial footprint.
Each FRC is named for an enlisted Coast Guard hero who distinguished themselves in the line of duty. This vessel is named after Dr. Olivia Juliette Hooker (1915–2018), who made history as the first African-American woman to serve in the U.S. Coast Guard, enlisting in 1945 as a member of the SPARs during World War II. Dr. Hooker answered the call to serve, completing boot camp and yeoman training before processing discharges for returning Coast Guardsmen. After the war, Dr. Hooker earned advanced degrees in psychology, becoming a respected professor at Fordham University and a lifelong advocate for education, mental health, and civil rights. Her trailblazing service exemplified the Coast Guard’s core values of honor, respect, and devotion to duty, and her legacy endures as the namesake of USCGC Olivia Hooker.
ABOUT THE FAST RESPONSE CUTTER PLATFORM
The FRC is an operational “game changer,” according to senior Coast Guard officials. FRCs are consistently being deployed in support of the full range of missions within the United States Coast Guard and other branches of our armed services. This is due to its exceptional performance, expanded operational reach and capabilities, and ability to transform and adapt to the mission. FRCs have conducted operations as far as the Marshall Islands—a 4,400 nautical mile trip from their homeport. Measuring in at 154-feet, FRCs have a flank speed of 28 knots, state-of-the-art C4ISR suite (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance), and stern launch and recovery ramp for a 26-foot, over-the-horizon interceptor cutter boat.
ABOUT BOLLINGER SHIPYARDS
Bollinger Shipyards (www.bollingershipyards.com) has a 80-year as a leading designer and builder of high-performance military patrol boats and salvage vessels, research vessels, ocean-going double hull barges, offshore oil field support vessels, tugboats, rigs, lift boats, inland waterways push boats, barges, and other steel and aluminum products from its new construction shipyards as part of the U. S. industrial base. Bollinger has 13 facilities, all strategically located throughout Louisiana and Mississippi with direct access to the Gulf of America, the Mississippi River and the Intracoastal Waterway. Bollinger is the largest vessel repair company in the Gulf of America region.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
There are better candidates but the FRCs are here, mature, can be built quickly, modified into missile boats, and will be more useful/utile than the Motor Torpedo Boats were during WWII.
I have suggested that it might be possible to develop a series of special purpose systems that might plug in to the stern ramp where the Over the Horizon boat is stowed. One might be a quad launcher for Naval Strike Missile.
PRECISELY . . . you are right on target. Bombs Away!
Detection/targeting must improve if the FRC is to become a combat platform. Electronic Support Measure (ESM) and EO/IR detection/tracking must improve, and the platform needs a 3D radar just like the RADA tested on the FRC.
Perhaps some combat system improvements are needed for I have no experience with the system, and fidelity, accuracy, and speed of detection, tracking, targeting, and launch of combat elements is paramount. Situational Awareness is everything here.
An LBTS is needed, and Wallops Island is a good place for weapons can be employed there.
The Mk66 Hydra Rocket upgrade is also an excellent idea. Expansion of the rockets used can grow. There are quite a list and the base data provided to each before launch is similar is not exact.
A Fast Response Cutter (FRC) uses a DRS RADA Multi-Mission Hemispheric Radar (MHR) for short-range air surveillance. The radar, specifically a Sierra Nevada Modi RPS-42, provides tactical detection capabilities for a variety of threats.
RADA radar on the FRC
Functionality for the Coast Guard
I presume the radar you refer to is the one used by the FRCs assigned to PATFORSWA.
I looked up pictures of the PATFORSWA FRCs and did not see the AN/RPS-42 installed. There is a picture in your ““Coast Guard Continuing Quest to Deploy Counter-Drone Systems” –Seapower article.
I think we should keep the FRC lines open to invite El Salvador, Argentina and Uruguay to buy into the FRC and OPC. Even allow the US Navy to buy into the FRC as well.
I don’t see the FRCs being used as anti-ship cruise missile launchers in an offensive role, B-1s and FA-18s are much better. I do see them needing to be better armed, just to do the force protection mission.
They might work up to an offensive role in a prolonged conflict if they are teamed with other assets.
https://www.dcms.uscg.mil/Our-Organization/Assistant-Commandant-for-Acquisitions-CG-9/Newsroom/Latest-Acquisition-News/Article/4356580/coast-guard-accepts-delivery-of-61st-fast-response-cutter/
Coast Guard accepts delivery of 61st fast response cutter
Dec. 10, 2025 —
The Coast Guard’s 61st fast response cutter, Olivia Hooker, moored in Key West, Florida, after delivery on Oct. 23, 2025. U.S. Coast Guard photo.
The Coast Guard accepted delivery of the 61st fast response cutter (FRC), Olivia Hooker, on Oct. 23 in Key West, Florida. Olivia Hooker will be the third FRC to be homeported in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
The Sentinel-class FRCs replaced the 1980s Island-class 110-foot patrol boats, and possess 21st century command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment, with improved habitability and seakeeping. A total of 77 FRCs have been ordered to date to perform a multitude of missions that include drug and alien interdictions, joint international operations and national defense of ports, waterways and coastal areas.
Each FRC is named after an enlisted Coast Guard hero who performed extraordinary service in the line of duty. Dr. Olivia Hooker was a pioneering figure in the history of the Coast Guard and a distinguished psychologist and educator who demonstrated a lifelong commitment to service, education and the betterment of society.
In February 1945, she became the first African American woman to serve in the Coast Guard when she enlisted in the Coast Guard Women’s Reserve, known as SPARS (an acronym derived from the Coast Guard’s motto, Semper Paratus – Always Ready). During her time in the Coast Guard, she performed administrative duties that supported the service’s critical operations during a time of global conflict.
Hooker was honorably discharged in 1946 and pursued higher education after her military service, earning a master’s degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a doctorate in psychology from the University of Rochester. She went on to have a distinguished career as a psychologist and educator.
Hooker’s commitment to service extended well into her later years. At the age of 95, she joined the Coast Guard Auxiliary, continuing to contribute to the mission of the Coast Guard and inspiring others with her dedication. In 2015, at the age of 100, she was honored by the Coast Guard for her service and legacy. Hooker passed away on Nov. 21, 2018, at the age of 103.
FRCs operate in a wide variety of areas, including critical maritime border zones, to support law enforcement and alien interdiction operations. In February 2025, Coast Guard Cutter Emlen Tunnell, as part of Combined Task Force 150, successfully interdicted nearly 2,400 kilograms of illegal narcotics through a New Zealand-led operation in the Arabian Sea.
Fifty-nine FRCs are in service: 13 in Florida; seven in Puerto Rico; six each in Bahrain and Massachusetts; five in Alaska; four in California; three each in Guam, Hawaii, Texas and New Jersey; and two each in Mississippi, North Carolina and Oregon.