U.S. Coast Guard Diver 2nd Class Connor Madsen, Regional Dive Locker West, cuts line, freeing a bundled chain to hook it onto a sunken buoy during a training exercise with the Republic of Korea Navy Underwater Construction Team divers off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii, July 18, during Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2024. Twenty-nine nations, 40 surface ships, three submarines, 14 national land forces, more than 150 aircraft, and 25,000 personnel are participating in Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2024 in and around the Hawaiian Islands, June 27 to Aug. 1. The world’s largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity while fostering and sustaining cooperative relationships among participants critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world’s oceans. RIMPAC 2024 is the 29th exercise in the series that began in 1971. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Kathleen Gorby)

Below is a press release from Coast Guard News.

RIMPAC 2024 was a big complex event. I had hoped to hear more about the Coast Guard’s participation, perhaps a release from each of the units, like the Pacific Strike Team did (linked in the news release), particularly news about the National Security Cutter (NSC) Midgett’s participation.

Was her CO a task force commander? Did she host a Navy helicopter? Did they do an anti-submarine exercise? NSCs did these things in the previous two RIMPACs.

This is what we got about Midgett’s role,

“Coast Guard Cutter Midgett conducted a broad spectrum of operations with the Canadian MV Asterix, Italian Navy offshore Patrol Vessel ITS Montecuccoli, Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Kidd (DDG 100), Royal Brunei Navy offshore patrol vessels KDB Darussalam and KDB Darulaman, Mexican Navy frigate ARM Benito Juarez and the ROK Navy submarine Lee Beom-seok. Operations covered both national defense as well as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions.”

Seven surface ships, embarked helicopters, and a submarine. That looks like a task force and Midgett’s CO was probably the senior officer among the ships’ crews, but someone else might have been assigned to command the task force. The presence of a submarine suggests ASW exercises. Some of the photos that accompany the news release give us some clues.

The U.S. Coast Guard helicopter tie-down team aboard legend-class cutter USCGC Midgett (WMSL 757) secures a Mexican navy Panther Helicopter ANX 2161 during Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2024 off the coast of Hawaii, July 14.  (U.S. Coast Guard photo by David Lau)

Legend-class cutter USCGC Midgett (WMSL 757) hosts a multi-ship interdiction and boarding exercise with Italian Navy offshore patrol vessel ITS Montecuccoli (P 432), who fast-roped a boarding team of seven onto Midgett simulating an at-sea boarding of a suspected arms smuggling vessel during Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC 2024), July 15, while underway in the Pacific Ocean. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by David Lau)

The press release linked above also has a photo of Midgett’s 57mm Mk110 gun firing. We can also be pretty sure Midgett did an underway replenishment.

Would love to hear more from people who were there.

I will make one observation. Of the six surface combatants, Midgett was the only one that did not have missiles of any sort.

• Obviously, USS Kidd, a DDG, is well equipped with 96 VLS cells for very sophisticated missiles.
• Italian offshore Patrol Vessel ITS Montecuccoli would probably be considered a frigate in any other navy. It is about a third larger than Midgett and has 16 full size VLS and eight ASCMs.
• Mexican Navy ARM Benito Juarez , classified as a “long-range ocean patrol ship,” is about two thirds the size of Midgett and has eight Mk41 VLS and a SeaRAM system. 
•  Royal Brunei Navy offshore patrol vessels KDB Darussalam and KDB Darulaman,  are a little more than one third the size of Midgett. Each can be equipped with four Exocet anti-ship cruise missiles. 

Of the five missile carriers, four are described as Offshore Patrol Vessels. That is what Midgett is.

The Coast Guard seems to be allergic to putting missiles on their ships, as if they are super weapons reserved only for the most sophisticated ships. Why I reported to the Academy in 1965, 59 years ago, that may have been the case, but now they come in all sizes and shapes. There is a good reason for this proliferation. They are effective. Many require very little training and little or no maintenance. They can provide an outsized effect at relatively low cost.

A common argument is that the price of a cannon projectile is far less than the cost of a missile, but that limited view misses the point that total lifecycle costs for missile systems may be much less than the cost of a gun system and its magazine load out of hundreds of rounds.

Maybe if you expect to do shore bombardment, firing thousands of ammunition at a target area, rather than a particular point, maybe guns are the smart choice, but the smaller the number of expected engagements, the smaller the number of rounds expected to be fired in each engagement, and the quicker you need to take out the threat, the more attractive missiles become.

Is seeing a missile system on a Coast Guard cutter going to make it look more threatening or aggressive, assuming we want to avoid looking like we can defend ourselves?

Guns, even as small as the 57mm Mk110 are pretty obvious and recognizable. Missile launcher can be much less obvious and may be overlooked entirely. Vertical Launch systems (VLS) barely protrude above the deck. Launchers for APKWS, Hellfire and similar systems may escape notice entirely. (My wife says most warship just look like a pile of junk.)

Guided weapons offer other advantages as well:

• There is less likelihood of collateral damage.
• We can put missiles on smaller platforms that could never mount guns with similar capability.
• Visible missiles systems can be temporarily removed much easier that gun systems. (It can be very obvious whether or not a ship is carrying anti-ship cruise missiles like Harpoon or Naval Strike Missile.)