Found myself singing Semper Paratus at breakfast this morning.
If you want to soak up a little Coast Guard history, you might want to look at the Heritage page. You might even learn something.
Happy Coast Guard Day
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Yearly Archives: 2016
How Much Would it Cost to Add ESSM to NSC?
The US Naval Institute reports the Chilean Navy is planning to upgrade three of their British Built Frigates, with Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) replacing their existing Sea Wolf weapon systems. Since ESSM was planned as a possible upgrade for the National Security Cutter, I thought the information might be of interest.
The US is providing the equipment under a Foreign Military Sales contract valued at $140.1M that will include three sets of Tactical Length Mk41 VLS (vertical launch systems), 33 Evolved Seasparrow Missiles (ESSMs) Six Evolved Seasparrow Telemetry Missiles, “Ten (10) MK25 Quad Pack Canisters; Five (5) ESSM Shipping Containers; Five (5) MK-73 Continuous Wave Illumination Transmitters, One (1) Inertial Missile Initializer Power Supply (IMIPS); spare and repair parts, support and test equipment, publications and technical documentation, personnel training, U.S. Government and contractor engineering, technical and logistics support services, technical assistance, installation and integration oversight support, logistics, program management, packaging and transportation.”
These figures include only the additional equipment. They do not include the yard work necessary to prepare the ship for installation and the installation of the equipment. Still I think this constitutes most of the cost of the upgrade of the three ships.
I would note that it is not clear how many VLS cells will be installed on each ship, but they are always installed in groups of eight. If we assumed eight cells on each ship, then each ship could theoretically support 32 missiles since they can be “quad packed,” that is four missiles can be placed in each cell. Chile is buying only 33 “war-shot” missiles and ten quad pack canisters. That is barely more than enough to fully arm one ship with eight cells, so it appears there will be some cells either left empty or filled with other types of weapons, which might include ASROC which also fit the tactical length Mk41 VLS.
Chile Christens Its Forth 80 meter OPV
On of our most popular posts has been “Three Nations Share German OPV Design” written by Andrés Tavolari, a lawyer, and Chilean Marine Reserve Officer. Andrés has written to say that Chile will christen their fourth Fassmer 80 class, OPV 84, “Cabo Odger” on August 3rd. Above is a Time Lapse of her construction.
As you can see from the diagram, this one will have a 76 mm gun.
FARSI ISLAND: SURFACE WARFARE’S WAKE-UP CALL–CIMSEC
Perhaps there is something to be learned here. A sister service whose missions parallel our own has had a serious failure. A SWO looks for the reason.
USNI News Video: U.S. Coast Guard and the Drug War
The US Naval Institute News Service has produced a short video on the drug war featuring the Stratton and her CO.
The video shows huge quantities of Cocaine on the flight deck of presumably Stratton. A viewer might assume the entire quantity was taken when Stratton successfully interdicted a self propelled semi-submersible with 7,000 kilos. Actually the deck cargo seen in the film is 30,000 kilos with includes not only Stratton’s haul but that of several other seizures.. These included other Coast Guard seizures and operations by other US agencies and international allies.
Fallout from the Philippines vs China SCS Case on US EEZ
Photo Credit: Marine Conservatory Institute, Click to enlarge.
“Largely overlooked in the tribunal’s July 12 decision was a strict interpretation of which dry land is entitled to a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone—the surrounding ocean where a nation has sole rights to fish, drill for oil, and search for minerals.”
“The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea doesn’t allow nations to declare exclusive economic zones around “rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own.” What that’s meant has never been clear. Many countries, including the U.S. and Japan, have claimed exclusive economic zones around tiny atolls and outcroppings of rock.”
“The tribunal concluded that having people live on an island doesn’t prove habitability if food and water comes from elsewhere.”
The result could mean large stocks of fish in the Pacific including at least parts of the newly expanded Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument could loose the protection of US regulation This could have long term implications for the US fossil fuel industry as well as the future of Offshore Thermal Energy Conversion.
The Black Tom Island Explosion and Fire–100 Years ago Today
Retired Coast Guard Captain L. Dennis Bryant reflects on the Black Tom Incident that gave birth to the Coast Guard’s Port Security Mission (pdf).
New South Korean Patrol Craft
 An artist rendering of South Korea’s new Chamsuri-211 fast patrol boat (Credit: Yonhap) |
NavyRecognition is reporting the South Korean Navy will be getting the first of a new class of Patrol Craft in late 2017. It is a bit smaller than the Webber class at 44 meters in length and 210 tons. It is designed specifically to counter North Korean Hovercraft. It is armed with a 76 mm gun and a pair of remotely operated, radar controlled 12.7mm (.50 cal.) machine guns. The unusual weapon seen on the stern is a launcher for 130mm (5.1″) guided rockets (apparently twelve) . (I suspect these are actually guided versions of the 5″ Zuni rocket, much like the APKWS is a guided version of the Hydra rocket. )
The vessels is expected to have a max speed of about 40 knot and will apparently be powered by waterjets. I don’t see any boat on the artist impression above.
1120 Miles Averaging 52.3 knots and Its Self Righting
MarineLog reports in part:
JULY 27, 2016 — The SAR 60, an 18 m high-speed search and rescue vessel prototype, set a new “Round Italy” record, July 12, completing the nearly 1,120 nautical mile voyage from Montecarlo to Venice in 22 hours, 5 minutes and 42 seconds, at an average speed of 52.3 knots.
The 18 meter boat was piloted by its designer, Fabio Buzzi, and built in his Annone Brianza, Italy, FB Design shipyard.
The boat, which has a near 60 knots top speed is powered by two 1,600 HP MTU 10V 2000M94 engines equipped with an additional “rough sea kit” that enables safe operation in the most extreme conditions.
The video above may be a bit confusing at first. Unfortunately it is in Italian. It includes more than one type of boat and record speed runs by the two different boat types reported in the MarineLog post. The boat that appears above, before you start the video, is not the one we are talking about, but once you get into it, it will be easy enough to recognize the 59 foot SAR60.
You can see the self righting experiment at 1m54s on the video.
There is also an interesting demonstration of a way to recover a helpless person in the water at 2m45s.
87 Footer Patrols SE Alaska
There is an interesting news release by the 13th District reporting, in part:
“The crew of the Cutter Terrapin completed a 37-day patrol to Southeast Alaska during which they protected living marine resources, safeguarded lives at sea and enhanced maritime security across the region.
“The crew of the Terrapin supplemented Coast Guard Sector Juneau’s response cutter requirements during the transition period between the homeport shifts of the 110-foot Patrol Boats Naushon and Chandeleur and the 2017 arrival of new Fast Response Cutters, the John McCormick and the Bailey Barco.”
Nice to see that they will be getting Webber class WPCs relatively soon. We knew they were coming. Should be an notable improvement over the 110s that were always a bit too thin skinned to operate freely up there.
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