The Fletcher laser guided rocket launcher fires BAE’s 2.75 inch laser guided rockets known as the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System. (Shawn Snow/Defense News Staff). VAMPIRE includes sensors, fire control, and potentially access to sensor networks. 

Below is a news release from L3 Harris. None of the reports I have seen provides much detail. How many systems? What platform will use them? Concept of operation?

This local report does seem to suggest there are going to be lots of these systems.

The company began high-volume production of VAMPIRE at its Huntsville manufacturing facility earlier this year in response to growing demand from the United States and allied militaries. The Huntsville operation handles assembly, testing and integration of the systems.

BAE has already produced 100,000 APKWS kits and has a capacity of 25,000 per year.

That they are not being specific about where these systems are going may simply mean they are going to a lot of different types of installations–mounted on trucks, in containers, and specifically we can infer that many will be going afloat since there is specific reference to “the environmental stresses of maritime environments.”

If these are intended to protect port facilities, then perhaps in addition to Coast Guard vessels providing protection from the waterside, perhaps Reserve Port Security units may need vehicle or container mounted systems.

I also have to wonder if there will be versions with more than four ready rounds.

These systems would also upgrade even smaller cutters’ anti-surface capability providing range and hitting power comparable to a 57mm gun with great precision.

MELBOURNE, Fla., Sept. 8, 2026 — L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) has been selected by the U.S. Navy to deliver VAMPIRE™ counter-unmanned systems (C-UxS) in support of the U.S.’ growing integrated C-UxS defense architecture.

The VAMPIRE system is a self-contained weapons solution that delivers advanced reconnaissance and precision strike against drones and remotely piloted platforms across domains.

“VAMPIRE is a flexible and effective system that meets the unique requirements of the U.S. Navy for littoral C-UxS defense,” said Tony Calderon, President, Targeting & Sensor Systems, Communications & Spectrum Dominance, L3Harris. “We’re engineering new capabilities to adapt to our customers’ missions and ruggedizing VAMPIRE against the environmental stresses of maritime environments.”

L3Harris is also delivering VAMPIRE systems to the U.S. Army. Separately, the company unveiled its Wraith Shield™ software earlier this year, which provides a radio-as-a-sensor capability to defeat small drones and can be incorporated with VAMPIRE and Drone Guardian® systems to deliver layered defense against UxS threats.

Above is a US Naval Institute interview with the winner of both the first and third place winner of the Institute’s Coast Guard essay contest.

A lot of the discussion is about why the Coast Guard should establish a Coast Guard Yard, West, at Mare Island (Subject of the first place winning essay), but he goes on to advocate improving the military readiness of Coast Guard cutters and explains the Coast Guard’s relationship with the Navy.

This year’s Coast Guard issue was particularly good. We did have some discussion of it earlier. The two essays written by LCdr Blevins are linked below.

• Reclaim Mare Island as an NSC Center of Excellence
• Build Future Frigate Lethality on Coast Guard Cutters Now

CGAS Kodiak

You may not learn anything from the article, but it is nice to see someone telling our story to a wider audience.

For a broader view of Coast Guard aviation facilities, this report is still substantially current.

Mk38 Mod4 Gun Weapon System. MSI-Defense Systems

TWZ (The War Zone) brings us a report on the Mk38 Mod4. 

Apparently the USN still has made only one installation. As to the future,

“The Navy’s 2027 fiscal year budget request, released earlier this year, makes clear the plan is still to integrate the Mk 38 Mod 4 at least on all Flight IIA and Flight III subvariants of the Arleigh Burke destroyer. The Mk 38 Mod 4 is also set to be a feature on future U.S. Coast Guard icebreakers, which will also have combat systems derived from Aegis.”

Unfortunately not much new here and perhaps the news is that there is no news about this  being used on future cutters. I checked the MSI–Defense Systems US LCC web site and there has not been a news release about the system since April 2024.

It may be that, with the Navy replacing close to one hundred Mk38 Mod 2/3 with Mod4s on Burke class destroyers, the Navy will pass these replaced units on to the Offshore Patrol Cutters, Arctic Security Cutters, and the remaining FRCs rather than buy new Mod4 mounts. Even if that is the case, there is still the option of upgrading the gun to 30mm.

I asked AI, if the Coast Guard was getting the Mod4 system, and this is what I got.

Yes, the U.S. Coast Guard intends to acquire and field the Mk 38 Mod 4 Gun Weapon System (GWS), but strictly for specific new ship classes like the upcoming Polar Security Cutter (PSC) heavy icebreakers.

Key Details on the Adoption

• Platform Application: The 30mm Mk 38 Mod 4—which upgrades the traditional 25mm chain gun to a 30mm Northrop Grumman MK44 Bushmaster II with a coaxial .50-caliber machine gun and independent electro-optical sight—is slated for the Coast Guard’s heavy polar icebreakers.

• Wider Fleet Rollout: Aside from the Polar Security Cutters, the Coast Guard has indicated the system will go on “some new cutters,” but hasn’t designated a broader fleet-wide replacement.

• Existing Cutters: The Coast Guard has stated it has no plans to retrofit or replace current 25mm systems (such as the Mk 38 Mod 2/3 variants found on Fast Response Cutters) with the new Mod 4.

The Coast Guard really needs to upgrade its existing 25mm mounts to 30mm. As noted in the text,

“The Mk 38 Mod 4 Machine Gun System (MGS) is an upgrade … to address deficiencies in meeting Counter Unmanned Aerial Systems (C-UAS) requirements,” the Navy has said in the past. “In addition, the upgrade will also improve performance against surface targets and maintain Anti-Terrorist / Force Protection capabilities.”

Looking at replacing the Mk38 Mod3’s 25mm gun with the 30mm Mk44 Bushmaster II might give us most of the advantages of the Mk38 Mod4 without the need replace the mount.

Below is a news release. 

USCGC Vincent Danz (WPC-1162) and USCGC Jeffrey Palazzo (WPC-1163)

Below is a notification to media of the commissioning of USCGC Jeffery Palazzo (WPC-1163). The little ship will ultimately go to Guam, but for now it will mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11.

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

The Navy League’s on line magazine, Seapower, reports,

“U.S. officials spoke to the media yesterday regarding the progress of Operation Southern Spear — the large-scale U.S. military and counter-narco-terrorism campaign in the Western Hemisphere — one year after the operation launched in September 2025, saying the mission has been largely successful thus far.

“Of note, one official said U.S. Southern Command’s counternarcotics operations over the past year have driven record reductions in illicit maritime activity, with a 65% reduction in the Western Caribbean, a 60% reduction in the Eastern Caribbean and a nearly 50% reduction in key areas of the Eastern Pacific.”

It does seem the conflict has changed. There was a two month period in which SOUTHCOM’s Southern Spear task force made no lethal kinetic strikes on purported drug smuggling boats, then on August 23 and August 25 lethal kinetic strikes were made. Since then there have been three reported interceptions of refueling vessels.

• https://www.southcom.mil/News/PressReleases/Article/4589814/interdiction-of-narco-terrorist-refueling-vessel-sept-2-2026/
• https://www.southcom.mil/News/PressReleases/Article/4591068/interdiction-of-narco-terrorist-refueling-vessel-sept-3-2026/
• https://www.southcom.mil/News/PressReleases/Article/4591750/interdiction-of-narco-terrorist-refueling-vessel-sept-5-2026/

In at least two cases the vessels were towing several small boats. The reports did not indicate if any drugs were found on the refueling vessel of the towed small boats.

It may be too early to declare victory. As we have seen the past, squeeze the ballon in one place, it bulges out somewhere else.

I have wanted to post about the two SINKEX that were included in RIMPAC 2026, but I was unable to find a comprehensive source identifying what was used and what effect the weapon, had. Rather there were numerous reports of individual weapons being used, but other than the fact that the Canadian submarine HMCS Corner Brook, using Mk48 torpedo, administered the coup de grâce to the former USS Mobile Bay (CG 53) it was had to link cause and effect with so many weapons being used particularly against the former USS Peleliu (LHA 5).

Weapons used:

• At least four US Army guided 227mm rockets (GMLRS) from M142 HIMARS
• Japanese Type 12 antiship missiles at the LHA
• LRASM from an FA-18
• At least four Harpoon missiles including two from USS Columbia (SSN-771) and two from Spanish and Japanese surface ships.
• Penguin missile from a New Zealand Navy helicopter
• Spike NLOS from a US Army helicopter
• Marte a smaller short range anti-ship missile
• Mk48 torpedo (apparently only one)
• Two unmanned kamikaze surface vessels.

I never saw a photo or video of the LHA sink. In fact I never saw a photo or video that seemed to show she had lost stability or that she had taken on a lot of water. Huge sections of the hull were ripped away but the ship never appeared to be sinking.

Below is a CENTCOM news release. 

The title of the release is not really accurate in that two of the tanker were immobilized while the third was destroyed.

It seems there is some messaging going on here. In the first two cases it appears the tankers were struck by Hellfire missiles targeting the stern so as to damage propulsion and/or steering while avoiding a massive release of oil. The third tanker was empty so destroying it did not result in a massive oil spill.

But the message was clear, we can destroy your tankers.

I would really like to know what weapons were used to destroy the third tanker. It may have been multiple Hellfires followed by secondary explosions.

I hope the Coast Guard is paying attention, because we need a ubiquitous weapon capable of forcefully stopping even large merchant ships that might be used a terrorist attack.

TAMPA, Fla. — U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces struck three Iranian crude oil carriers, Sept. 5, after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched ballistic missiles toward two U.S. Navy warships patrolling regional waters.

A U.S. aircraft carrier and guided-missile destroyer successfully evaded multiple unprovoked Iranian attacks. No American personnel were harmed.

Following Iran’s failed attacks, CENTCOM permanently disabled the IRGC crude oil carriers M/T Downy off the coast of Kharg Island and M/T Stark 1 near Jask. American forces also completely destroyed the unladen crude oil carrier M/T Kylo (also known as the “Noxen”) in the Gulf of Oman, striking the vessel in multiple critical locations to render it inoperable after the crew was directed to abandon ship.

The three Iranian crude oil tankers are part of a multibillion-dollar shadow network that funds the IRGC and its regional proxies. Iran has no means by which to defend them.

“Let the message to the IRGC be clear: If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost —taking out three of yours,” said Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander. “We will not hesitate to defend American forces, and if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet.”

Smoke rises after Iran carried out a missile strike on the main headquarters of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet in Manama, Bahrain. (Anadolu via Getty Images)

Defense News reports,

“”The more we learn about the attacks on the U.S. Naval Support Activity (NSA) in Manama, Bahrain, during the opening days of Operation Epic Fury, the clearer it becomes why the news of its near destruction was not initially reported or acknowledged.

“Extensive damage to one of our most significant forward bases in the Middle East is likely to have profound tactical and strategic repercussions that are only now coming into focus.”

What did we loose when the six patrol boats left 5th Fleet and the squadron became “expeditionary?”

PATFORSWA was the largest Coast Guard unit outside the US. It included a training facility to train boarding parties and the patrol craft made a number of seizures including drugs (here and here) and arms being smuggling to Yemen (here and here). The cutters could be maintained in their homeport.

PATFORSWA had a long term continuing relationship with 5th fleet including Unmanned system experiments over many years.

Two MANTAS T-12 unmanned surface vessels operate alongside a U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat during exercise New Horizon in the Arabian Gulf. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Dawson Roth)