VIRGINIA BEACH -- The Coast Guard is trying out a new tool for homeland security and search and rescue missions; a 45-foot Response Boat-Medium.

It is the first of its kind, and is being tested out at Little Creek. The boats cost around $2 million per copy, and this is the first of 180 such vessels the Coast Guard hopes to build over the coming decade.

They are four feet longer and a whole lot faster than the old 41 footers they replace. The first of six to be delivered across the country this year has been on the job at Coast Guard Station Little Creek since April.

“It’s very awesome,” said Master Chief Gordon Muise of the United State Coast Guard. “It’s leaps and bounds over what we pretty much currently have for our small boats.”

The multi-mission, all aluminum boats with their twin diesel jet drive engines can reach 46 knots and cover a full spectrum of Coast Guard small boat missions in coastal zones, in inshore and inland waterways, and open oceans within a 50 mile radius.

They have a robust, state of the art electronics and communications system.

Already, the boat at Little Creek has taken boarding reams 12 miles offshore for security boardings, done escorts and performed towing missions.

Master Chief Muise said his job is to test the boat in an operational environment, and so far, so good.

“We’ve learned quite a bit on the electronics, what it can do,” he said. “We’ve also learned that if you don’t watch what you’re doing, it can hurt you, because this is a high-speed boat, highly maneuverable. It will toss people if you don’t pay attention.

The Master Chief also touted some of the boat’s attributes.

“The speed is going to get us on scene quicker,” he said. “The sensors it has on it, electronics, is better for communication with other vessels, other people. So, it’s going to take the ‘search’ out of search and rescue.”