Response Boat – Medium

Response Boat – Medium

A US Coast Guard RB-M underway off Yorktown, Virginia
Class overview
Builders	Marinette Marine Corporation Kvichak Marine Industries
Operators	United States Coast Guard Canadian Coast Guard
Preceded by	41-foot Utility Boat, Large
Planned	170
Completed	174
General characteristics
Displacement	16.3 ton
Length	44 ft 9 in (13.64 m)
Beam	14 ft 7.75 in (4.4641 m)
Draft	3 ft 4 in (1.02 m)
Installed power	2 × MTU Detroit Diesel turbocharged Series 60 engines, 825 hp (615 kW) total
Propulsion	2 × Kongsberg Maritime FF-Series waterjets
Speed	30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) (cruise) 42.5 knots (78.7 km/h; 48.9 mph) (max)
Range	250 nmi (460 km; 290 mi) at 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Complement	4
Armament	2 × M240B general-purpose machine guns

The Response Boat – Medium (RB-M) is a 45-foot (14 m) utility boat used by the United States Coast Guard. It is a replacement for the Coast Guard's retired fleet of 41-foot (12 m) utility boats (UTB), which had been in use by the Coast Guard since the 1970s. On June 21, 2006 the USCG awarded the RB-M contract to Marinette Marine of Marinette, Wisconsin and Kvichak Marine Industries of Seattle, Washington. The RB-M was designed by Camarc Design in the UK. Between June of 2006 and March of 2015 Marinette, in Green Bay Wisconsin and Kvichak in Kent, Washington partnered to build and deliver 174 RB-Ms to the USCG. Kvichak developed and delivered several police boat variants to several cities including Seattle and New York.

In the summer of 2017, the Canadian Coast Guard purchased a used 45 RBM from the United States Coast Guard. It is based in Vancouver British Columbia under the name CCGS Laredo Sound.

According to the US Coast Guard, "While primarily a search and rescue asset when the 41' UTB was first fielded, the evolution of missions has increased the requirement to perform many missions including recreational boating safety, marine environmental protection, enforcement of laws and treaties, ports, waterways, and coastal security, and defense operations, including those traditional missions associated with Homeland Security."^{[2][failed verification]}

On March 17, 2015, the U.S. Coast Guard received the 174th and final RB-M into service.^[3]

The boat has a deep-V, double chine hull, which provides a balance of performance and stability. The vessel is self-righting if it capsizes in rough seas. Below the pilot house are six compartments:

• Lazarette
• Auxiliary machinery compartment
• Engine room
• Survivors' Compartment
• Forepeak
• Head

(Sources:^[4][5])

• FLIR navigator thermal imager
• Furuno scalable integrated navigation system
• Furuno radios
• Gentex LVIS digital intercom system
• Taiyo TD-L1550A VHF Direction Finder
• Motorola 5000 digital mobile radio
• Mount for KY-99 makes RB-M ready for secure communications
• L3 Communications automatic identification system

In keeping with standard USCG practice, boats of this size have hull numbers and are not named. This type of boat has a hull number beginning with the length of the boat (45′) and then a sequential number. In the case of the RB-M boats, the hull numbers begin with 601. Thus the first boat will be RB-M 45601.

Sources:^[6][7]

RB-M 45771 at Station Destin, Florida was featured at Smarter Every Day channel ^[8]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to USCG Response Boat-Medium.

• Equipment of the United States Coast Guard

• "Response Boat – Medium History". Kvichak Marine Industries.