USS Tempest (PC-2)

USS Tempest (PC-2)
History
United States
Ordered	3 August 1990
Builder	Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, Louisiana
Laid down	30 September 1991
Launched	4 April 1992
Commissioned	21 August 1993
Recommissioned	23 August 2008
Decommissioned	30 September 2005
Reclassified	1 October 2005
Homeport	Naval Support Activity Bahrain
Fate	Recommissioned active USN
Status	in active service
Badge
General characteristics
Class and type	Cyclone-class patrol ship
Displacement	331 tons
Length	174 ft (53 m)
Beam	25 ft (7.6 m)
Draft	7.5 ft (2.3 m)
Installed power	2 x Caterpillar 3306
Propulsion	4 × Paxman Valenta Diesels, 3600 bhp
Speed	32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph)
Boats & landing craft carried	1 Volvo diesel powered RHIB
Complement	(USN)4 officers, 24 men, 8 Special Forces, (USCG)2 officers, 28 men
Armament	(USN) 2 × Mk38 chain guns 2 × Mk19 grenade launchers 2 × .50 (12.7 mm) machine guns 6 × Stinger missiles

USS Tempest (PC-2) is the second Cyclone-class patrol (coastal) ship, decommissioned 30 September 2005 and loaned to the United States Coast Guard as USCGC Tempest (WPC-2). She was placed in 'Commission Special' status until December 2005, when she was formally commissioned as a Coast Guard cutter. She was returned to the US Navy on 22 August 2008.

In 2013, Tempest shifted homeport to Naval Support Activity Bahrain. While deployed to the Persian Gulf on 24 August 2016, USS Squall fired three warning shots from a .50 caliber machine gun at an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy fast attack craft that approached within 200 yards of Tempest. The fast attack craft had ignored radio calls to veer off as well as warning flares.

USS Tempest, July 2003

References

•  This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.

External links

Media related to USS Tempest (PC-2) at Wikimedia Commons

• FAS