Lasers vs Small Boats–the Low Cost Solution? Will We Have the Power?

The Coast Guard has apparently recognized the need for systems to counter unmanned air and surface systems for the Ports, Waterways, and Coastal Security mission. Like every other services they are hoping to be able to do it with lasers or other systems that offer light weight, mobility, low per kill cost and infinite magazine depth. So they are asking what is available?

“This Request for Information (RFI) is part of an effort by the United States Coast Guard (USCG) to determine the availability and technical readiness of directed energy technologies. The USCG is interested in systems or effectors that use high energy lasers (HEL) or comparable laser technology to incapacitate targets of interest (TOIs) in the maritime environment. The “maritime environment” refers to installation locations that include, but are not limited to, fixed sites such as piers, on the move (OTM) cutters, and OTM small boats. The unique challenges of the maritime environment may require packaging to protect against shock, vibration, sea spray, and airborne particulates, including smoke and fuel exhaust. Primary TOIs for this RFI are, but are not limited to, uncrewed systems, to include uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) and uncrewed surface vessels (USV). Information is specifically requested regarding physical dimensions of the effector: its weight, power requirements, cooling requirements, and rough order of magnitude for cost of acquisition and installation. Responses should also include wavelength, output power, area of effect, and range information. Software load to include target profiles and targeting methods should be included as available.”

This is a long way from a fielded system, but it is at least encouraging that they have apparently recognized the need. Question is, if we find, we can’t do it cheaply, will we pursue hard kill systems and how urgent do we see this threat? Responses are due August 20.

Things we could do relatively quickly, put laser designators and APKWS on every Webber class WPB. Convert every 25mm Mk38 to 30mm so that they could fire airburst ammunition.

Ukrainian sailor Roman mans a machine gun during a patrol on the Black Sea on an American-donated patrol boat on July 23, 2026. (Svetlana Shkolnikova/Stars and Stripes)

Stars and Stripes provides us a report on what the Ukrainians are doing with patrol boats donated by the US.

The report refers to former four 110 foot USCG Island class cutters, one of which has been lost, and six 44 foot Metal Shark Defiant 40 patrol boats.

• “Remembering Coast Guard Cutter Cushing” –MyCG, March 2022
• “Ukraine’s New U.S. Supplied Combat Boats Already Patrolling Black Sea” –Naval News, Nov. 2022
• “U.S. Navy’s New 40-Foot Defiant Patrol Boat” –Naval News, Plus FMS Patrol Boat, June, 2022
• “US Supplying Ukraine with 23 Metal Shark Military Vessels” –Seapower, June 2022
• “Metal Shark set for full-rate production of Navy’s next-gen patrol boats” –MarineLog, Dec., 2019

There are lessons learned reflected in the report including that sometimes smaller is better and specifically about countering drones, “Two different machine guns are typically needed to down one of the Shaheds — the 7.62mm M240 tends to be too weak on its own so the 12.7mm M2 Browning at the stern has to be fired as well, Roman said.”

Italian Navy multi-purpose combat ship ITS Thaon di Revel (P430), Greek Navy frigate HS Kanaris (F464) and a Polish Navy M-28 B1R Bryza Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) intercepted sanctioned tanker MT Toa Payoh (IMO: 9298492) on Aug. 2, 2026. Italian Defense Ministry photo

The US Naval Institute News service reports on an interception of a “shadow tanker” by European naval units, but I have to say the measures taken don’t sound very effective.

“Toa Payoh was allowed to continue on its journey. EU sanctions only impose penalties – not seizures or arrests. Sanction penalties include asset freezes, travel bans and the prohibition to make funds and economic resources available to listed entities with sanctioned ships being barred from entering EU ports. Toa Payoh is also sanctioned by Canada, Switzerland, the U.K. and Ukraine. France, as well as Belgium and the U.K., have adopted a different approach to intercepting sanctioned ships, opting to seize and divert the ships to their national ports for inspections and fines.”

Mexican Navy, Philippine Coast Guard sail in formation during RIMPAC 2026
Mexican Navy Reformador-class frigate ARM Juarez (POLA 101) sails in front of Philippine Coast Guard Gabriela Silang-class offshore patrol vessel BRP Gabriela Silang (OPV 8301) during a formation exercise in the Pacific Ocean as part of Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2026, July 19, 2026.

Below is a news release reporting USCGC Kimball’s participation in RIMPAC 2026 and it mentions other Coast Guard units that participated (William Hart (WPC 1134), Oliver Berry (WPC 1124), Hollyhock (WLB 214), and the Pacific Regional Dive Locker).

Would really like to know what the other CG ships were doing. The Webber class may have just been playing the bad guys, WPBs used to do that a lot during Navy exercises.

Looking at what Kimball did during the exercise, it doesn’t really look like they did much in the way of training for war which is what I would have expected. Previously National Security Cutters have operated Navy helicopters and led multinational ASW task groups. The live-fire gunnery exercises may have been only .50 caliber. There were not photos of either the 57mm or Phalanx firing.

The three non-US ships mentioned are an interesting lot. All three were commissioned in 2020.

ARM Juarez (POLA-101) is classed by the Mexican Navy as a long range patrol vessel, but it is much different from their numerous WMEC like OPVs. It is one of a series of Damen designed SIGMA small combatants considered generally to be corvettes or light frigates. At one time I thought the OPC might have been based on a SIGMA design. The Mexican ship has both AAW (SeaRAM) and ASW (sonar, torpedo tubes, and helicopter) capability. I hope they got to exercise those capabilities.

BRP Gabriela Silang (OPV-8301) was the only non-US coast guard vessel participating in the event. She is a relatively minimalist 83.6 m (274 ft) Offshore Patrol Vessel, built in France for the Philippines. She is unusual in that she has an aluminum hull resulting in unusually economical operation, particularly at low speeds. She is claimed to be the largest aluminum hull Offshore Patrol Vessel in the World. Crew is only 35.

HMNZS Aotearoa (A11) is a New Zealand ice strengthened underway replenishment ship, built in South Korea, whose missions includes support of New Zealand’s Antarctic Scott Base, only three Kilometers from the US McMurdo Station. She has places for 22 twenty foot containers, so potentially very flexible.

Still frames from footage of a November 2025 lethal strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean as part of Operation Southern Spear. U.S. Southern Command

There is an unusual article in the new US Naval Institute Proceedings that suggests that the lethal strikes against suspected drug smuggling boats may be doing psychological harm to those involved. The author compares recent events in the Caribbean with what appears to have been a simpler case of seizure of a Cuban fishing boat during the Spanish American War which may have lead to at least one suicide and perhaps others, as related in a USNI Naval History, June 2026 article, “The Capture of the Paquete Habana,” by Charles Robbins.

Reading Robbins’ account in the spring of 2026, it is impossible not to see parallels to what is being asked of U.S. pilots and weapons officers right now. Since September 2025, under Operation Southern Spear, U.S. military forces have conducted lethal strikes on small boats in the international waters of the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. As of June 2026, these strikes have killed at least 200 people in more than 60 separate engagements. The legal framework rests on domestic counterterrorism designations rather than prize law, but the structural question is the same one Justice Horace Gray confronted in 1900: Can the executive branch use military force against small, civilian-type vessels in international waters while bypassing judicial review and the customary norms of the law of nations? Gray’s answer—that it could not—rested on five centuries of international law.

Gray’s answer rested on a principle that still stands, “International law is part of our law, and must be ascertained and administered by the courts of justice . . .”

This year’s Coast Guard edition is really outstanding. It discusses some issues I think are fundamental to the future of the Coast Guard. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you probably ought to be a member, but even if you are not, you can get limited access.

Topics include the need for a Coast Guard Yard on the West Coast (mentioned in three different articles), arming National Security Cutters, the process behind Force Design.

• Reclaim Mare Island as an NSC Center of Excellence
• Build Future Frigate Lethality on Coast Guard Cutters Now
• Foresight, Force Design, and How the Coast Guard Can Win the Long Game

All three noted above are written by serving Coast Guard Officers.

Norwegian Coast Guard vessel KV Hopen during its visit to Nova Scotia. Port of Sydney photo.

Ran across this photo today on Facebook. It provides a different view of a Jan Mayen class ice strengthened Offshore Patrol Vessel. Pictures taken during construction of  Jan Mayen here.

These are big ships, 9,800 tons standard, 136.4 m (447 ft 6 in), and have hangar space for two medium size helicopters. That is a 57mm gun on the bow. Crew is only 100.

Xue Long, a Chinese research ship, transits north through the U.S. EEZ and over the U.S. extended continental shelf in the Bering Sea with a declared destination of the Arctic, July 12, 2026. In recent years, the Coast Guard has observed heightened activity in the U.S. Arctic and anticipates continued and increased presence in the region this summer. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)

Below is a news release. Yes, it is old news, but I wanted to use it to talk about the work load on PACAREA cutters.

There are nine large patrol cutters in PACAREA, 6 NSCs and 3 WMECs. Typically that means we can consistently have three on patrol at all times, two NSCs and one MEC. Sometimes we may be able to have more but not consistently. Large cutters do not wait in port ready to be called out. Their patrols are scheduled.

About two weeks ago, we had Kimball in RIMPAC, Midgett in Japan, and Munro following a  Chinese Icebreaker.

Typical areas patrolled are:

• Eastern Pacific drug transit area (frequently covered by Atlantic Area ships),
• West Coast fisheries (increasingly covered by Webber class WPCs)
• Alaska SE Coast Fisheries (presumably now also covered increasingly by Webber class)
• Aleutians/Bering Sea
• Oceania Fisheries including American Samoa and Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands and Republic of Palau, sovereign countries partnered with the U.S. through Compacts of Free Association (largely neglected until FRCs arrived in Guam)
• Far Western Pacific.

As I have said before, Atlantic Area (or District SE) should be solely responsible for all drug enforcement in the SOUTHCOM/Fourth Fleet AOR. Their ships are actually closer. They have more than twice as many ships, and their headquarters are all in the same time zone.

Note patrols above the Arctic Circle, beyond the Bering Strait almost never happened until recently. USCGC Healy’s annual trips to the Arctic centered on research they were not there to monitor other nation’s activity. There was essentially no fishing in US waters North of the Arctic Circle. This seems to be changing.

We have Munro monitoring one Chinese icebreaking research ship, but a second shows up.  Can Munro monitor two ships? Do we have a second cutter to monitor the second Chinese ship?

The Arctic Security Cutters seem to be the answer to this question but the Davie design is reportedly only capable of 16 knots while the Xue Long is capable of 18. In ten hours it can be over the horizon. The other Arctic Security Cutter design is almost exactly the same size but has less horsepower, so unlikely to be faster.

It may not be necessary to monitor all Chinese vessels in the Arctic and as they become more numerous it may be impossible. In 2025 there were five. Can we really tell what they may be doing, particularly if they have remotely operated or autonomously operated under water vehicles and/or a moon pool.

Brett Bonner served in the U.S. Coast Guard for 21 years.Credit…Mike Belleme for The New York Times

There is not a lot in this story, just a report of one man who retired with 21 years service in 2022 and committed suicide in 2025 after exhibiting irrational behavior.

I think we all recognize that being a surfman is hard on the body, maybe it is hard on the brain as well. Hope we are tracking this question.

Thanks to Pat for bringing this to my attention.