U.S. NAVY
The Cyclone-class coastal patrol ship (PC) USS Typhoon pulls alongside the Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate USS
Thach for a fueling at sea in the Persian Gulf in August 2009. With their multimission capability, the Cyclone-class PCs
have proven to be useful for the U.S. Fifth Fleet’s missions in the Persian Gulf. Five PCs are based in Bahrain.
Fleet’s missions in the Persian Gulf. Five PCs are based
in Bahrain, with crews rotating in for deployments lasting approximately six months.
“Patrols range from about two weeks to a little over
three weeks,” said Lt. Brian Luebbert, commanding
officer (CO) of Patrol Coastal Crew Bravo, noting that
missions involve “primarily oil platform defense and
some theater security cooperation as well.
“The size of the ship lends itself to working with
other navies that don’t have larger ships like we do in
the U.S. Navy,” he said. “So the small size is great for
interacting with the other navies out there.”
“Their speed and ability to work in shallow water
are their biggest advantages over other ships in the
U.S. naval surface force,” Johnson said. “This allows
them to conduct some missions closer to shore than
other classes of ships.”
On the downside, he said, “Cyclone-class PCs have a
comparatively limited time on station without dedicated
logistics support.”
The PCs are capable of refueling at sea but because
of the nature of their mission sets in the Persian Gulf,
rarely do so, Luebbert said.
The small size of the PCs can be a disadvantage, he
said, for “sustainability for longer mission sets based on
our fuel capacity, because we are a smaller ship and the
amount of food and stores that we could keep onboard
for the crew. It’s kind of a two-sided coin there.”
Luebbert said that because the Cyclone PCs are com-
parable in size to the ships of many foreign navies, they
offer advantages in theater security cooperation missions.
