gCaptain has a post that looks at a Navy proposal to build ten smaller underway replenishment ships, but it goes on to provide an overview of US sealift capacity (see the video above, included in the gCaptain post), and it finds that it is pretty poor.
“…amateurs talk strategy, but professionals talk logistics.”
Why should the Coast Guard care?
Any merchant marine construction in the US is going to be subject to Coast Guard oversight.
The health of America’s shipbuilding industry is in the Coast Guard’s interest.
It would be nice to have enough underway replenishment ships to be able to keep one on station in the Eastern Pacific to support drug interdiction efforts. Might make operating groups of Webber Class WPCs in the drug interdiction role in the drug transit zone more practical. It might even be possible to fly supporting Coast Guard rotary wing or UAS assets from a T-AOL. It would probably be good to have one in Oceania as well.
Because there are so few US owned merchant ships, and because the MSC and MARAD sealift ships are old, unreliable, and use outdated technology, it is difficult to find crews for them. Then there might also be a problem of getting the mariners we do have, to take what is likely to be a hazardous job.
The Navy has already told MARAD that in wartime they would be on their own. That they should not expect the Navy to protect them.
Take a look at what happened in WWII. The Coast Guard ended up crewing 351 US Navy and 288 Army ships and craft. Many of the Navy vessels and most of the Army vessels were logistics ships. If the Navy has trouble crewing logistics ships, they might well commission them and put Coast Guard crews on them.
The Coast Guard should support MSC and MARAD recapitalization.
Cmdr. Jonathan Harris relieved Capt. Anne O’Connell as commanding officer of the USCGC Campbell (WMEC 909) during a change of command ceremony, Friday, 9 June, 2023, at Naval Station Newport. Rear Adm. Laura Dickey, deputy commander of Coast Guard Atlantic Area, presided over the ceremony.
Reading over this simple news release, there are a couple of things that stood out for me.
Having graduated from the CG Academy when it was all male and nearly all white, proud to see the apparent opportunities the Coast Guard now offers to women and minorities.
Second, and the reason I am posting this is,
“Harris previously served as the USCGC Hamilton’s (WMSL 753) executive officer.”
That is the way it ought to be. You should not get command of a major cutter without having served as either a department head or XO, preferably of a major cutter.
June 9, 2023
USCGC Campbell holds change of command ceremony
NEWPORT, R.I., — U.S. Coast Guard Cmdr. Jonathan Harris relieved Capt. Anne O’Connell as commanding officer of the USCGC Campbell (WMEC 909) during a change of command ceremony, Friday, at Naval Station Newport.
Rear Adm. Laura Dickey, deputy commander of Coast Guard Atlantic Area, presided over the ceremony.
Harris previously served as the USCGC Hamilton’s (WMSL 753) executive officer.
“I am extremely excited to take command and look forward to serving at sea with the Campbell crew, a team who delivers outstanding mission results by saving lives and enforcing the law,” said Harris.
O’Connell served as the commanding officer of Campbell from July 2021 to June 2023. O’Connell’s next assignment will be the director of the Commandant’s Advisory Group at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The change of command ceremony marks a transfer of total responsibility and authority from one individual to another. It is a time-honored tradition to formally demonstrate the continuity of authority within a command conducted before the assembled crew and esteemed guests and dignitaries.
Campbell is a 270-foot, Famous-class medium endurance cutter. The cutter’s primary missions are counter-narcotics operations, migrant interdiction, living marine resources protection, and search and rescue in support of U.S. Coast Guard operations throughout the Western Hemisphere.
For information on how to join the U.S. Coast Guard, visit GoCoastGuard.com to learn about active duty, reserve, officer, and enlisted opportunities. Information on how to apply to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy can be found here.
“UK-based anti-submarine warfare (ASW) solutions provider SEA has been awarded a contract to supply two of its innovative ASW systems, KraitSense, to a South-East Asian Navy for a new offshore patrol vessel (OPV) programme.”
It these systems perform reasonably well; they would be an attractive mobilization option for giving OPVs an ASW role. Even if not equipped with ASW weapons, adding sensors that can be coordinated with other surface and air weapons carriers would be helpful.
The SE Asian Customer?
Artist impression of the future Philippine Navy OPV to be constructed by HHI. HHI image.
Who is the SE Asian country with, “With a vast coastline and high number of islands within their jurisdiction…” Think the Philippines may be most likely.
Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) is building six offshore patrol vessels (OPV) for the Philippine Navy (not their Coast Guard). At about 2400 tons, 94.4 meters (309 ft 9 in) in length, with a speed of 22 knots, they are pretty typical medium sized OPVs, except for one thing, Wikipedia reports that their armament, in addition to 76 and 30 mm guns, includes two sets of triple lightweight anti-submarine torpedo tubes. There is no indication of an ASW sensors. It is reported to have spaces for Multi-Mission Containerized Modules. The flight deck and hangar are sufficient for support of an ASW helicopter and/or UAS.
GlobalSecurity.Org has a report on a tri-lateral Counter-Terrorism exercise conducted by the US, Japan, and Philippine Coast Guards. This was part of an exercise discussed earlier. The USCGC Stratton was the USCG contingent. The photo above was taken a bit earlier and shows Stratton exercising with vessels from Indonesia and Singapore.
MEDIA AVAILABILITY: Coast Guard to hold special status ceremony for Cutter Bayberry
Editor’s note: Media interested in attending should contact the Coast Guard’s 5th District Public Affairs Office at 410-576-2541 no later than 10 a.m. Tuesday and include the names of those coming to attend the event.
WHO: Rear Adm. Shannon Gilreath, commander, 5th Coast Guard District, Capt. Baer, commander, Coast Guard Sector North Carolina, and Senior Chief Christopher Thompson, officer in charge, USCGC Bayberry.
WHAT: A special status ceremony will be held to recognize the accomplishments of the Cutter Bayberry and the change of the cutter’s operational status, signifying the beginning of being decommissioned from active Coast Guard service after 69 years.
WHEN: Wednesday, June 7 at 10:00 a.m.
WHERE: Station Oak Island, 300 Caswell Beach Road, Oak Island, NC 28465
PORTSMOUTH, Va. — The media is invited to attend a scheduled special status ceremony in preparation for removing the USCGC Bayberry from Coast Guard service.
The Bayberry was built by Reliable Welding Works in Olympia, WA, and spent its first 17 years in the San Francisco area, with a 3 year stay in Rio Vista CA, before returning to Seattle in 1971.
When it returned to Washington, it was retrofitted with a 60-foot barge for operations and was the only one of its kind. The cutter also became a primary deployer of the Vessel of Opportunity Skimming System, an oil spill recovery system. The Bayberry’s operations in Seattle spanned from 1971 until 2009 when it was relocated to Oak Island.
The Bayberry’s recent accomplishments include post-hurricane Dorian operations, where the crew led a waterways reconstitution mission, completed a complex voyage correcting 40 aids to navigation discrepancies, enabling the rapid resumption of ferry service, and facilitating the delivery of emergency supplies to 700 residents stranded on Ocracoke Island. In 2021, when extensive shoaling suddenly compromised Oregon Inlet Channel and no other capable asset was available to respond, the cutter led a 400-mile mission to the Outer Banks to retrieve and relocate five buoys that dangerously misled mariners, significantly enhancing the safety of this busy waterway, preserving search and rescue capabilities, and sustaining the local economy.
This map shows the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) within the Arctic: Canada (purple), Greenland (orange), Iceland (green), Norway (turquoise), Russia (light blue), and USA (dark blue). Credit: DeRepentigny et al., 2020
The Indo-Pacific Defense Forum has a post which somewhat surprisingly talks about NATO concerns about the Arctic. I presume this is as a result of the recently concluded Shangri-La Dialog at which both the UK and Germany discussed future naval deployments to the Pacific. Canada pledged to increase its naval presence in the Pacific. Japan and S. Korea said they would put aside their differences and work more closely together. China also told “others” they should mind their own business and stay out of China’s backyard, defending their harassment of Western miliary units in the South China Sea.
We live in an interconnected world, and it appears the Arctic Ocean will become an important new connection between Europe and Asia. China, Russia, and Europe are particularly concerned about shaping the connection to their advantage and what that will mean in the long run is not yet clear.
An Arctic route could provide the US with an alternative to the Panama Canal for movement between the Atlantic and Pacific, but the US probably will not benefit as much from the opening of the Arctic Ocean as the Asians and Europeans. On the other hand, any traffic using the Arctic to pass between the Atlantic and Pacific will have to pass within about 32 nautical miles of the US at the Bering Strait and within less than 300 nautical miles of a US Aleutian Island. This puts the US in a good position to regulate any traffic using the Arctic for passage between the Atlantic and Pacific should we choose to do so.
The Indo-Pacific Forum post does not say much we have not heard before, but it did mention that the Chinese have, “…plans to build the world’s biggest icebreaker vessel.” Given the size of existing Russian nuclear powered icebreakers, that is going to be a very large ship.
There is a good possibility that Russian and Chinese aims in the Arctic may be in conflict. The Chinese are likely to want to transit the Arctic free of charge. The Russians will want them to pay for the privilege. The Chinese will want access to the resources of the Arctic while the Russians consider most of the Arctic to be Russian EEZ or continental shelf.
We have gotten along with the Russians pretty well in the Arctic, but we may be seeing an end to the Arctic as a zone of peace. Still, I don’t think the conflict will be between the US and Russia.
We should not forget that we may see that very large Chinese icebreaker in Antarctica.
Catch is readied for inspection during a boarding by USCGC Frederick Hatch crew members and a local maritime officer in Micronesia’s EEZ. IMAGE CREDIT: PETTY OFFICER 2ND CLASS BRANDON CHAPLEA/U.S. COAST GUARD
But the post also discussed another program, a new class of smaller amphibious warships, expected to enter service from the early 2030s, that will also fill the role of Offshore Patrol Vessels.
Captain Van der Kamp also outlined the RNLN’s evolving thinking on a replacement amphibious shipping capability, dubbed LPX…these new ships are also expected to assume the patrol and surveillance tasks currently performed by the navy’s four Holland class patrol vessels…“We would combine these amphibious ships with the function of a patrol vessel to do Coastguard patrols in the Caribbean and counter-drugs operations in the Caribbean.”
The four Holland class OPVs were commissioned 2012 to 2013, so in the early 2030s they will be at the most 23 years old. These ships are similar in size, speed, capabilities, and mission to the OPCs. They have frequently conducted drug interaction missions in the Caribbean with US Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachments embarked and at least on one occasion using a USCG helicopter.
The other two ships being replaced, HNLMS Rotterdam and HNLMS Johan de Witt. are older, commissioned in 1998 and 2007. They have a combined capability to land about 1200 Marines. I presume the cumulative capability of the new ships will be similar. Each of them can also carry up to 32 tanks, but the Netherlands Marine Corps does not have any tanks, nor do they have organic heavy artillery. Their only armored vehicles are much smaller, so perhaps the replacement ships will not need the capability to handle tanks.
Why is the Netherlands Navy choosing to do this?
Going from six ships to perhaps only four is likely to decrease the total crew requirements.
It may be that the landing ships are considered better able to meet the disaster response component that has been one of the OPVs’ missions.
The Netherlands Navy may not see any wartime role for the OPVs, or at least no role the new LPX could not also do.
Nevertheless, it seems the changes is rooted in changes in the Marine Corps concept of operation. “…leaner and smaller units that would unload further away from land.”
It may be significant that the new ships are referred to as LPX not LPDX. That may mean that they would not have a well deck. It might be thought they are paralleling US Marine Corp thinking that resulted in the Marines shedding their tanks and heavy artillery and the formation of a Littoral Regiment and a program to build relatively small Landing Ship, Mediums. On the other hand, given the way the Netherlands Marine Corps names their units, “Raiding Section,” “Raiding Troop,” and “Raiding Squadron,” they obviously see themselves as a raiding organization more akin to the British Royal Marine Commandos of WWII than to the US Marine Corps that seized and held islands in the Pacific. They do have a long and continuing association with the Royal Marines. In any case they are and probably will remain essentially light infantry.
If the new ships are to replace the four OPVs, then I would presume they would still need at least four ships. If they were following the USMC example, they may build a larger number of smaller ships, but I don’t think that will be the case. If they are to “…unload further away from land,” they are going to be very different from the beachable LSMs envisioned by the US Marines. The British developed LCVP Mk5c used by the Netherlands Marine Corps are big boats, 15.7 m (51 ft 6 in) in length and displacing 24 tons. If they are to be swung from davits, it will not be from a small ship.
I would not be surprised if the LPX program came out as four ships that look a lot like slightly larger Danish Absalon class (which can reportedly transport a company-sized landing force of some 200 soldiers with vehicles). Four ships that could each transport 300 Marines, each equipped with four LCVPs (or its replacement), a pair of “FRISC”(Fast Raiding, Interception and Special forces Craft) RHIB, with hangar space for a couple of helicopters, could replicate the transport capacity of the two LPDs in a more flexible, distributed, and perhaps more survivable force package. The resulting ships would effectively be modern high-speed transports (APD/LPR).
In May, the U.S. Coast Guard will start a strengthened and pointedly direct anti-SASH campaign that will extend across the maritime industry. SASH is an acronym for sexual assault/sexual harassment, and this new effort adds muscle to Marine Safety Information Bulletin (MSIB Number: 1-23) “Reporting Sexual Misconduct on U.S. Vessels” released in February. The new bulletin supersedes a previous one from late 2021.
I don’t normally report on Marine Safety topics. Never really had any experience in that area, but this could affect every boarding officer.
Passing along this news release. (More photos available through the link.)
May 31, 2023
U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton visits Singapore during Indo-Pacific deployment
SINGAPORE – U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton (WMSL 752) departed Singapore, May 22, following a scheduled port visit while deployed to the Indo-Pacific.
While in Singapore, Stratton’s commanding officer and crew strengthened trusted partnerships with local leaders, maritime safety and security stakeholders, and the community.
“The United States Coast Guard is committed to upholding a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific. Stratton is here to support our allies and partners in making sure the Indo-Pacific region remains free and open to all,” said Capt. Brian Krautler, Stratton’s commanding officer. “The crew is looking forward to operating with our partners in the region. The crew of Stratton is ‘always ready’ to operate alongside like-minded nations as a trusted partner.”
While in port, the U.S. Ambassador to Singapore, the Honorable Jonathan Kaplan, toured the Stratton discussing interoperability in the region. The cutter’s crew volunteered with the Genesis school, a school for special needs children, and served at a food bank that feeds up to 7,000 people. Additionally, the Stratton’s crew played friendly matches of ultimate Frisbee against the Republic of Singapore Navy sailors.
Stratton is deployed in the Indo-Pacific to engage with ally and partner nations and promote a free and open Indo-Pacific. The Stratton crew is conducting operations to share best practices and expertise in search-and-rescue, law enforcement and maritime governance. U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy forward-deployed forces remain ready to respond to crises as a combined maritime force. Singapore is Stratton’s fourth port visit since departing her homeport of Alameda, California.
Stratton is operating as part of Commander, Task Force (CTF) 71, U.S. 7th Fleet’s principal surface force. CTF-71 is responsible for the readiness, tactical and administrative responsibilities for forward-deployed assets andsurface units conducting operations in the region.
Stratton is a 418-foot national security cutter capable of extended, global deployment in support of humanitarian missions, and defense missions. National security cutters routinely conduct operations throughout the Pacific, where the range, speed and ability to operate in extreme weather provides the mission flexibility necessary for the U.S. Coast Guard to serve as a unique strategic contributor in the region.
The namesake of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton is Capt. Dorothy Stratton, who led the service’s all-female reserve force during World War II. Capt. Stratton was the first female commissioned officer in the Coast Guard and commanded more than 10,000 personnel. The ship’s motto is “We can’t afford not to.”
U.S. 7th Fleet is the U.S. Navy’s largest forward-deployed numbered fleet, and routinely interacts and operates with allies and partners in preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area is responsible for U. S. Coast Guard operations spanning across six of the seven continents, 71 countries and more than 74 million square miles of ocean. It reaches from the shores of the West Coast of the United States to the Indo-Pacific, Eastern Pacific, Arctic and Antarctic. Pacific Area strives to integrate capabilities with partners to ensure collaboration and unity of effort throughout the Pacific.
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