USS Norton Sound's later work included trials of vertical launching and the Aegis combat system. Those trials supported equipment associated with the Ticonderoga and Arleigh Burke classes, helping explain why a former tender carried newer weapons, including a 5-inch/54 gun. Ensign Charlene Albright is also named among the early women assigned to shipboard duty aboard the vessel. Norton Sound is suggested tentatively while trying to identify the earlier example, so the unnamed Coast Guard cutter's identity remains unresolved.
Notable Point · 4:59:54-5:01:18
Norton Sound's second career in weapons trials
The former seaplane tender provided a hull for VLS and Aegis trials associated with later American surface combatants.