United States Exclusive Economic Zone – Pacific centered NOAA map
Aljazeera reports that,
The US Coast Guard was “strategically homeporting significantly enhanced Fast Response Cutters … in the western Pacific,” White House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien said in a statement.
What does that mean? Is this just a reference to the three Webber class WPCs that will be homeported in Guam? Or will we see a replication of PATFORSWA in the Western Pacific? Does “significantly enhanced” mean these FRCs will have improvements to sensors, communications, and/or weapons, or does it just mean they will be better than the two 110 foot WPBs they are replacing?
There is also this interesting tidbit,
O’Brien added that the Coast Guard, which is under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), was also studying whether to permanently station several of its patrol ships in the area of American Samoa in the South Pacific.
Thanks to Walter for bringing this to my attention.
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The text of the statement this report is based on is here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-national-security-advisor-robert-c-obrien-102320/
Its short. Not much more than included above.
A bit more background info in this report.
https://www.stripes.com/news/pacific/coast-guard-homeporting-cutters-in-western-pacific-to-counter-china-s-illegal-fishing-1.649948
Bollinger comments. https://seapowermagazine.org/bollinger-praises-study-on-basing-frcs-in-samoa-to-counter-chinese-encroachment/
Here is a Chinese reaction. http://eng.chinamil.com.cn/view/2020-10/29/content_9927342.htm