Above is a video of a symposium conducted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, November 29, 2017, with Rear Admiral Michael F. McAlister, Commander, 17th Coast Guard District, as the speaker. He talked about:
The Arctic as he sees it now and his concerns for the future.
Working relationship with counterparts in Russia, China, Canada, and other Artic nations.
Some of the topics were a traffic management scheme jointly proposed with Russia for the area around the Bering Strait.
Prospect of increased Illegal, Unregulated, and Unreported Fishing in the Arctic.
Differences in pollution response regulations and planning compared to how it is done in the lower 48.
Improved communications among Arctic Coast Guard Forum nations.
Extending Maritime Domain Awareness to include groups outside the Coast Guard such as environmental groups and native villages.
As an aside he also mentioned a program I was not aware of, that the Coast Guard seconds officers to think-tanks like CSIS.
Dan Sullivan, Sub-Committee chair (R, Alaska)(Lt.Col., US Marine Corps Reserve)
Gary Peters, ranking member (D, Michigan)(LCdr. US Navy Reserve, Supply Corps)
Bill Nelson, ranking member of the Commerce Committee (D, Florida)(Capt. US Army Reserve)(NASA Scuttle payload specialist)
Roger Wicker, Chairman of the Seapower sub-committee (R, Mississippi)(Lt.Col. ret. USAF reserve)
Richard Blumenthal (D, Connecticut) (USMC Reserve 1970 to 1976 discharges as Sargent)
Brian Schatz (D, Hawaii)
Ed Markey (D, Mass.) (Spec4, US Army Reserve, 1968-73)
Jim Inhofe (R, Oklahoma) (Spec4, US Army, 1956-1958)
Maria Cantwell (D, Washington)
You can also check out the original post from the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. (Same video is available there, but the meeting does not actually start on that version of the video until minute 36.) There you can also find the written statements of the other three witness who constituted the second panel. The Commandant was the sole witness on the first panel.
This was something of a love fest for the Coast Guard with repeated praise for the people and actions of the Coast Guard.
This hearing was reputedly about how the Coast Guard had been impacted by the unusually severe Hurricane season. There is not a lot new here but there were some interesting remarks.
Polar Icebreaker Contracts
The intention is to Contract for the first Icebreaker and then employ block buy for the next two (28m). To me this seems to negate most of the advantage of a block buy. I don’t believe we will or should buy one and then wait until we have tried it out before contracting for the next two. That would necessitate a delay of at least five years during which we would still have the nightmare scenario of our only heavy icebreaker having no rescue if it should break down in the ice–certainly not an impossibility even with a new ship. If we are going to contract for the remaining two before testing the first, we might as well block buy all three.
First of class is always the most expensive. If the shipyard gets a block buy they know that initial improvements in productivity can be amortized over the entire block buy quantity. In some cases, in order to win the whole project, the shipyard will cut the price of the first ship substantially knowing they will make a profit over the entire project.
If we buy one and then block buy the second and third, we have paid for improvements to the winning yard with the first contract and minimized the chances for a competitive bid for numbers two and three.
Legislation has capped DOD participation in icebreaker procurement, so the bulk of icebreaker procurement costs will come out of the Coast Guard budget.
Authorization
There was a lot of discussion about the need to have the Coast Guard Authorization Bill signed into law, still not approved. You can see it here.
Other topics
There was a discussion of the high cost of the Coast Guard response to the recent series of Hurricanes.
Representative Sullivan spent a lot of time, discussing and advocating for an eleven mile road from King Cove (population estimate–989) to Cold Bay, Alaska (population estimate–122) which has an all-weather airport with two runways, one 10,180 feet and one 6285 feet in length. The Coast Guard connection is that the road would minimize or eliminate the necessity for the Coast Guard to Medivac emergencies from King Cove by helicopter, which is frequently hazardous. It is a Federal issue, because the road would run through a Federal reserve. The Commandant fully supported the desirability of completing the proposed single lane gravel road as a means of minimizing the requirement for helicopter medivac.
Video Breakdown
28m Domestic icebreakers–Design work on new domestic icebreakers is expected to start in 2030. That sounds a bit late to me. Mackinaw was commissioned in 2006 so if that is what he is really talking about, that makes sense, but the 140 foot icebreaking tugs are a different story. The first for of these will be 51 years old in 2030. More than half of them have already completed in-service which was expected to add 15 years to their service life. Morro Bay, at least, is expected to reach the end of her service life in 2030, and considering how long it takes us to build a ship we really need to start the process not later than 2025.
45m Western Pacific Fisheries Protection–They have not seen much risk of Illegal, Unregulated, or Unreported fishing.
51m Inland River Tenders
56m We may need to replace the 52 ft MLBs with something larger than the 47 foot MLB sometime in the future, but their end of life is not yet apparent
58m Coast Guard Museum in New London
60m Sexual Assault in the CG
1h02m Puerto Rico/Virgin Islands continuing commitment and its effects on drug seizures and alien migrant interdiction.
1h05m Vessel homeporting
1h08 CG center of expertise, particularly in regard to clean up spills in ice and fresh water
The Coast Guard is directing the documentation of possible exposure to asbestos and lead on ships that were built before 1991, which of course means most of them.
This TD applies to all Coast Guard members currently and previously assigned to CG cutters that were constructed prior to 1991. Documentation is for the purpose of identifying potential exposure to low levels of asbestos and lead below the Medical Surveillance Action Level (MSAL) required for enrollment into OMSEP. Medical documentation of these exposures may facilitate the processing of future Veterans Administration disability claims.
This is primarily aimed at active duty personnel, but an entry on the Coast Guard Retired Facebook page indicates an intention to also document possible exposure of those no longer on active duty.
Statistically 2017 was the best year yet for this blog. We had 215,180 views and 54,412 visits. Both represent a least modest increases over previous years. I have wondered occasionally, if I was running out of things to say, but there is always seems to be something new. Fortunately, I get a lot of help from readers who share their expertise and experience in the comments.
There were 259 posts this year, growing the total archive for this blog to 1,935 posts.
We continue to have an international readership. The US Is of course the largest with 158,165 views but, aside from the US, 15 countries had more than 1,000 views and 40 had more than 200. Aside from the US, the top 10 were the UK (8,807), Philippines, Canada, Japan, Australia, Spain, Netherlands, Ireland, Chile, and Germany (1,976). We even had a few readers from Russia (#16 with 968 views) and China (#30.Hong Kong SAR China with 294 views and #33 China with 282).
The next statistic (top posts of 2017) is a bit deceptive in that, because of the way the blog is structured, most of the time, posts are read on the homepage. The figures below are for the times a post has been accessed directly.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 