The President spoke at the graduation ceremony for the Coast Guard Academy class of 2015. You can read the text of the speech here.
President’s Speech at the Graduation of the Academy Class of 2015
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Monthly Archives: May 2015
Could This Be the Start of Something Big?
We got word today of an interesting development in the Senate from frequent contributor Tups.
“Today, U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Lisa Murkowski (R- AK) introduced the Icebreaker Recapitalization Act. The bill would authorize the U.S. Navy to construct up to 6 heavy icebreakers. The new icebreakers would be designed and operated by the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard is the sole service responsible for icebreaking missions.”
Here is the announcement of the bill.
The actual bill is here (pdf).
I note few things about how this bill and how it was written.
- First it is a long way from funding a new icebreaker fleet.
- Second funding through the Navy, while perhaps easier, will not help pump up the Coast Guard’s ship building budget so that adequate funding is seen as normal and expected.
- Clearly they expect the ships to be built in Washington State.
- The bill authorizes multiyear funding, but the program does not seem to meet the requirements of multi-year funding.
- It only talks about up to six heavy icebreakers while the High Latitude Study also talks about medium icebreakers. In fact the most frequently sighted requirement is for three heavy and three medium icebreakers. This may be a ploy to insure that all the work goes to Washington, rather than being split between Washington and the Gulf Coast.
- Even so, there is a requirement in the High Latitude study for six heavy and four medium icebreakers, under some circumstances. Series production of six heavy icebreakers might bring down the unit cost.
Navy “Crowd Sourcing” for Solutions
USNI is reporting the Navy is launching a new system that they hope will allow bottom up innovation including answers to specific command problems.
Looks interesting. It does require a Navy e-mail address to join.
Perhaps if it works the Coast Guard could use the same system.
Is Pakistan Forming an American (or Chinese) Style Coast Guard?
Defense News reports that Pakistan is planning a new force to protect its ports and Exclusive Economic Zone. There are few details except that it should have 12,000 members. There is speculation that it will incorporate the existing Maritime Safety Agency which is a maritime agency under control of the Navy and their existing Coast Guard which is a shore-side agency under control of the Army.
Why the Coast Guard (also) Needs a 30 Year Shipbuilding Plan
When I first learned that the Navy had a 30 year shipbuilding plan, I thought it was silly, too many unknowns, too many variables. But I have changed my mind. The Coast Guard has made a serious tactical error in not paralleling the Navy planning process and creating a similar annual 30 year plan.
In the federal government budget process, the default allocation is that an agency will get the same proportion of the budget they got last year, in fact the same amount they got last year adjusted for inflation. The Coast Guard has not even been getting that. Increasing that proportion is always difficult.
When you concentrate on only one project at a time (it has been the National Security Cutter, now it is becoming the Offshore Patrol Cutter or OPC) without recognizing all the work that will be required in out years, it is too easy for Congress and the Administration to figure they can stretch out the project at hand without realizing it results in a growing backlog. Current Coast Guard public planning budget documents generally look only five years ahead, but most procurements take at least ten years to realize. The Navy considers ten years “near term” planning. The OPC project, as currently planned, will require funding at least through FY2030 and almost certainly some follow-up beyond that.
But FY2030 is not an end point. Keeping in mind that typically we need to start planning for replacement ten years before it is actually needed, the Coast Guard will not only need Polar Icebreakers, it will also need to begin several more replacement projects:
- New small harbor tug/icebreakers (WYTL), the oldest of the eleven existing ships is already 54 years old.
- New Inland Aids to Navigation vessels (WLI, WLIC, WLR), about 40 of them entered service prior to 1970.
- New Icebreaking Seagoing Tugs (WTGB), The oldest of the nine Katmai class are 36 years old already.
- New WPBs. The oldest of the 73 Marine Protector Class will be 25 years old in 2023.
- New Sea Going Buoy Tenders, the oldest of the 16 Juniper class will be 30 years old in 2026.
- New Coastal Buoy Tenders, the oldest of the 14 Keeper class will be 30 years old in 2027.
- Even funding for designing the replacements for the Bertolf class which began entering service in 2008 should be included in a 30 year plan. Probably funding for the replacing the older units as well.
We need a plan to replace them all. We need to look at least 30 years into the future which would now mean FY2046. It would be the best argument for a realistic Coast Guard shipbuilding budget.
This is the Navy’s latest 30 year plan in tabular format.
Maritime Counter-Insurgency/Stabilization
Gun crew on board USCGC Point Comfort (WPB-82317) firing 81mm mortar during bombardment of suspected Viet Cong staging area one mile behind An Thoi.(August 1965)
Good discussion of the maritime dimensions of “small wars” here.
Insurgencies, failed states, piracy, terrorism all look pretty much like law enforcement and require similar resources. It requires maritime “boots on the ground” in the form of patrolling vessels to do VBSS, including those that can operate in shallow water . The Navy has shown little interest in this type of warfare. Certainly their resources for these types of operations are limited.
When Operation Market time began in 1965, the Navy had 880 ships in the fleet including 287 cruisers, destroyers, and frigates, but that did not mean they did not see a need to bring in 26 Coast Guard 82 foot patrol boats and build 193 Swift boats. Currently the US Navy has about 273 deployable ships including about 100 cruisers, destroyers, frigates, and LCS, plus 13 PCs and the first of their 85 foot Mk VI boats plus a few smaller boats.
It is the nature of these conflicts, that the Navy will never be able to divert all its assets to address the threat. They will continue to worry about and employ assets to counter other threats.
This is an area where the DOD might want to consider funding Coast Guard forces to be available for contingencies to supplement the Navy’s resources. After all the Coast Guard is the country’s primary repository for knowledge about these types of missions. A decision might be based on a poll of the six Combatant Commander’s views of their requirements. It would not be necessary to be able to meet all these contingencies simultaneously, although two trouble spots is certainly a possibility, but choosing the most demanding could provide a good baseline.
New Fleet for Trinidad and Tobago
The order includes 4x Stan Patrol 5009 Coastal Patrol Vessels (middle); 2x Fast Crew Supply 5009 Utility Vessels (top) ; 6x Interceptor DI 1102 Interceptors (bottom). Picture: DAMEN
NavyRecognition reports that Trinidad and Tobago is purchasing 12 vessels from Damen. As is typical for Damen products the number represents nominal length and beam in meters.
Info Request–MH-68
I have received a request for information on past Coast Guard operations that I could not answer, but perhaps a reader could help:
I wonder if you can help me out. I’m just conducting some research into the embarked operation of the A109 (MH-68A in USCG speak) at sea. I am trying to find out if the USCG ever embarked the MH-68A for extended periods and, if they did, were the main rotor blades of the helicopter folded to allow it to be stowed in the ship’s hangar? Do you know if this was the case? Or did they remain on deck? Or completely remove the blades each time the aircraft was stowed?
I believe the Philippine Navy is operating this aircraft off their 378s now.
Just for fun, I added the video above. It does not show the aircraft being hangared, but it does show the boots used over the rotor tips to keep them from flapping in the wind, when the helo was secured on the flight deck. Beside it includes one of my favorite 378 COs.
Anyone know if the MH-68 was ever hangared on shipboard?
Towed Airborne Lift of Naval Systems (TALONS)
Navy Recognition reports on two initiatives that are part of the TERN, “a joint program between DARPA and the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research that seeks to enable forward-deployed small ships to serve as mobile launch and recovery sites for medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial systems.”
We have talked about TERN before, it is intended to allow the LCS and similar sized ships to have persistent overhead surveillance by Unmanned Air Systems (UAS). The post talks about a launch and recovery system for fixed wing UAS, “SideArm,” but there is also this discussion of a towed system that looks like it might be applicable to units as small as WPBs and give them many of the advantages of a UAS with far less overhead.
DARPA’s TALONS effort seeks to develop a low-cost, fully automated parafoil system to extend small ships’ long-distance communications and improve their maritime domain awareness. Towed behind boats or ships, TALONS could carry ISR and communications payloads of up to 150 pounds between 500 and 1,500 feet in altitude—many times higher than current ships’ masts—and greatly extend the equipment’s range and effectiveness. Following successful ground-based tests, DARPA will conduct at-sea testing this year and potentially transition the technology to the U.S. Navy.
Why is this important? With a mast head height of say 36 feet the horizon distance is only about 7 nautical miles. Go to 500 feet and it is over 26 miles. Go to 1500 feet and it is over 45 miles. Effectively search widths could be multiplied several times over.
It doesn’t take much power to keep a parafoil up. In my neighborhood, there is a good sized man who flies a powered foot launched version out of our local open space. He has the engine and prop on his back, launches into the wind with just a short walk or run. Landings are frequently at walking speeds. That people (admittedly braver than I) are willing to entrust their lives to these things has to say something about their reliability.
(Historical note: During WWII, the Germans used an manned unpowered autogyro, the Focke-Achgelis FA-330, that was towed behind U-boats in an effort to extend their visible horizon.)
Innovative Gun Mount
Photo credit: MKFI. 57 mm Bofors Mk 3 gun in stealth turret at the bow of Swedish Visby class corvette Nyköping (K34) in Aura river in Turku during the Northern Coasts 2014 exercise public pre sail event.
NavyRecognition has an update on the Malaysian Gowind project. This light frigate is probably similar to what VT Halter might have come up with for the OPC, less the missiles and ASW equipment of course, but I would particularly like to take notice of the way the Bofors 57mm Mk3 mount which is otherwise essentially identical to our Mk110 mounts, is treated. It is similar to the installation in the photo above.
When the CG first fielded the 270s, we had problems with green water coming over the bow and impacting the gun. The Malaysian frigate has a fixed structure, with doors on top, where the gun barrel is recessed forward of the rotating gun shield that is intended to make the mount more stealthy, but it looks like it would also protect the mount from heavy seas as well. That might be reason enough for the CG to do something similar.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 