USCG Island class
The United States Coast Guard Island class of cutters included approximately five dozen vessels. As originally built these vessels were crewed with sixteen personnel, were armed with a 25mm autocannon, and were capable of speeds of approximately thirty knots.
Following al Qaeda's attacks on September 11, 2001, a plan called "Project Deepwater" was to modernize and re-equip the Coast Guard's fleet. The Island class cutters were to be lengthened from 110 to 123 feet.
The crew accommodation were to be modernized to comply with a new policy for all cutters to accommodate crews of mixed sex.
The lengthening was designed so the vessels could launch and retrieve a water-jet propelled rigid-hull infatable Short Range Prosecutor high speed pursuit boat, without coming to a halt first.
Initially the first eight vessels to be modernized were described as a success. But later it emerged that the lengthened stern were structurally unsound, and the converted vessels were unseaworthy. The conversion had also gone several multiples over-budget.
Forty-nine of the original Island class vessels remain in active service. The unmodified vessels still have to come to a halt to launch a boat.