The new administration has said they will make the Coast Guard a better “fighting force.” I have some suggestions.

Having watched the 9/11 terrorist attacks and having learned how unprepared the Air Force was to deal with such an attack, I became concerned that the Coast Guard is also unprepared to deal with terrorist attacks.

We also should not assume that China will not open hostilities with unconventional attacks on US port facilities that are essential for support of a distant conflict.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know I feel the Coast Guard is not properly armed to perform its “Ports, Waterways & Coastal Security” and “Defense Readiness” missions and that furthermore there is no other force ready step in and address this shortfall in a timely manner.

The Navy no longer has Naval Districts and associated patrol craft. The Navy has surface ships home-ported in only five ports complexes, Norfolk/Little Creek, Mayport, San Diego, Seattle/Puget Sound, and Pearl Harbor. Not a single Navy surface vessel is home-ported on the East Coast North of Virginia, on the Gulf Coast, or in Alaska. Even where Navy ships are home-ported, how long would it take to get them underway and ready to take defensive action?

The Army no longer has any Coast Defense units. Since 9/11 the Air Force has a few units aircraft ready tor air-to-air combat, but I have never seen any indication they have aircraft and crews on alert, much less air borne ready to respond to a maritime attack.

The war in Ukraine has demonstrated how relatively unsophisticated short range systems can do significant damage and multiple attacks using these systems can be coordinated.

The Coast Guard needs to have weapons that can deal with a range of threats including:

• Unmanned aircraft, from the smallest to converted light planes
• Small, fast, highly maneuverable surface craft including personal watercraft
• Merchant ships of any size

Generally these weapons need to be light, easy to use, and should require minimum maintenance. They should also risk only minimum collateral damage since they may be being used inside an American harbor.

They should be installed on the larger patrol cutters, but they must also be installed on the Webber class cutters, because the Webber class WPCs are both widely distributed and have a large enough crew to provide the necessary security.

I would also like to see them installed on buoy tenders and a replacement class for the 87 foot WPBs that could serve as true fast response cutter for both SAR and defense. Because there are so many assets to protect, the systems must become ubiquitous.

Some thought should be given to how we might arm our Coast Guard aircraft for these missions too. It would not be too difficult to arm H-60s. It has been done.

Over the next few days I am going to talk about some of the weapon systems I think are most appropriate to fill this need: Hellfire/JAGM; APKWS; the Very Light Weight Torpedo; and the 30mm gun with airburst ammunition.