Carol Collins
Huntington Ingalls Industries’ shipbuilding division has cut the first 100 tons of steel needed to build the U.S. Coast Guard’s national security cutter Friedman.
The 418-foot-long, Legend-class vessel is designated as NSC 11 and named after Elizebeth Smith Friedman, a civilian who broke and delivered secret codes from criminals to the Coast Guard during the Prohibition era, HII said Tuesday.
Friedman generated critical counterintelligence information in the Southern Hemisphere during World War II and her work provided the groundwork for cryptographic applications that led to the formation of the National Security Agency.
Kari Wilkinson, president of Ingalls Shipbuilding, said the business and its personnel have worked over the past decade to establish a Legend-class national security cutter production line.
Coast Guard uses NSCs in maritime safety and security, law enforcement and environmental protection missions.
