Stars and Stripes is reporting that Minnesota Sea Cadets are attempting to raise money to purchase the former USCGC Acushnet (WMEC-167) which also saw service as the USS Shackle(ARS-9), a Diver-class rescue and salvage ship.
She would probably be a good choice. Not only only does the ship have a long and notable history, this class was robustly built.
From the German Navy blog, Marine Forum, “2 Mar., The UN Security Council unanimously (!) decided on new sanctions on North Korea … a.o.t. closing gaps in the arms embargo that had allowed small arms and light weapons to be sent to North Korea; now full embargo on all weapons as well as any items that could directly support the North Korean armed forces (e.g. trucks that could be modified for military purposes) … all (not just suspicious) ships coming from or going to a North Korean port have to be inspected for embargoed materials.“
While CG LEDETs will probably be involved, I cannot help but think that if we had enough ships, this would be a job better done by cutters than the Navy.
Our friends at CIMSEC have had a week long look at the concept of Distributed Lethality, the Navy Surface Warfare Community’s concept of wide distribution of offensive anti-ship and possibly land attack systems, commonly summarized as, “If it floats, it fights.”
The Coast Guard does not appear to have been included in any of the discussion of this concept, but perhaps it should be.
CIMSEC has collected their recent posts on the subject. There is an intro and background information here, or you can just download the entire collection as a pdf here.
You can read the Commandant’s State of the Coast Guard speech here (pdf). It is only eight pages.
The Commandant continues to hammer on themes he has addressed in the past–the Arctic Strategy in response to the opening of a new ocean and the Western Hemisphere Strategy in response to lawlessness in Central America and the resulting immigration crisis (plus the ships needed to employment the strategies–OPCs and Icebreakers in particular), and duty to our people (the Human Capital Strategy). While the topics are familiar, his tone is more optimistic.
The Coast Guard budget for FY2016 included the largest acquisitions, construction, and improvements (AC&I) budget in its history and the Commandant appears to believe this will not be a flute.
The Commandant has chosen his battles and is doing well in terms of conveying what he sees as the critical narrative. Now it sounds like he is about to expand his objectives.
The Commandant has promised an analysis of Coast Guard personnel requirements.
Most people have seen the great American cinema classic Jaws. In it, Police Chief Brody, when he first lays eyes on the 30-foot Great White shark attacking New England beachgoers, says to his colleague, “You’re going to need a bigger boat.” It is a great line that lives on as an expression to state the obvious.
We’ll let me nuance that a bit. Looking at the challenges we’re facing in the world today: ladies and gentlemen, you’re going to need a bigger Coast Guard….As required by our 2015 Authorization Act, I am directing a Coast Guard Manpower Requirements Plan to formally establish a force size informed by strategy, analysis and risk management.
Allow me to look even further down the road,
The world seems to becoming an increasingly dangerous place. The brief window when the US ruled a mono-polar world is closed. It may be time for the Coast Guard to reemphasize its military character. If you look at long term trends, the size of the Coast Guard, in terms of personnel has generally been stable or growing, while the still much larger, Navy has continued to shrink. When I was commissioned in 1969, the Navy was about 21 times larger than the Coast Guard and the Marine Corps was over eight times as large. Now the Navy is less than eight times the size of the Coast Guard, and the Marine Corps is less than five times as large. In terms of personnel the Coast Guard is already larger than the British or French Navy. This suggest that its potential as a significant naval force should not be ignored.
The Coast Guard now seems poised to have a future fleet of nine frigate sized National Security Cutters and 25 corvette (or light frigate) sized Offshore Patrol Cutters. That is 34 surface combatants, not an insignificant number when you consider the Navy has and will have only about 120 cruisers, destroyers frigates and LCS. While the cutters quality as warships is far below that of DDG, they are not far removed from that of an LCS and in some respects, particularly endurance, they are superior. We really need to look at what we could do, for relatively small marginal costs, to make these ships effective contributions to the National Fleet. In a similar fashion we need to look at how other elements of the Coast Guard could strengthen national defense.
The Coast Guard may be the US’s secret naval edge, unrecognized by our enemies and by our own government, the Navy and many of our own people, but risking the stealthy nature of our contribution to national defense, a more formalized and recognized military tasking could justify continued expansion that could also improve performance in other mission areas, and give us the bigger Coast Guard the Commandant think we need.
GCaptain is reporting that Australia’s 3911 ton, 94.9 meter multi-purpose icebreaker/supply ship, Aurora Australis, broke free of its moorings and grounded while on a supply mission to Mawson Station.
This looks like it might be an opportunitiy to test the lethality of our 57mm guns. We have a tug that needs to be disposed of. Let’s see how well a Bertholf’s 57mm Mk110 does against this small target.
In April 2012 we had an opportunity to exercise our weapons against a derilect Japanese fishing vessel that had been adrift since the Tsunami of 11 March 2011. USCGC Anacapa let loose with her 25mm and probably scored over a hundred hits, but ultimately had to use fire hoses to sink the little ship. I used this as an example of how hard it is to sink a ship with gunfire.
To be fair lets make sure that all the tugs few bulkheads are watertight; you would want to make sure they were before towing it anyway. To make it interesting, start shooting from between 10,000 and 12,000 yards, and fire say 20 rounds at that range. Then close to about 7,000 and shoot another 20. If the tug hasn’t sunk, close to no less than 4,000 and try to finish it off.
Would be very interested to see the results, including how long it takes to sink the ship? How many hits at what ranges? It would be good for an aircraft to get some video of the damage, as it progresses too. The Navy might also be interested in the results.
The Commandant will be issuing the 2016 State of the Coast Guard address at 14:00 (2:00 PM) Eastern Time. Apparently it will be streamed live. Details here. http://www.uscg.mil/CoastGuard2016/
Bairdmaritime is reporting that European ship owners are supporting recommended EU guidelines for policy regarding ships that seek refuge within the territorial sea of EU countries.
I don’t have a Captain of the Port/Marine Safety background. Could this be an issue for the US?
There is a new and interesting product from the Congressional Research Service, “The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Strategic Implications.”
Growth in trade naturally grows the Coast Guard’s responsibilities. This, unlike NAFTA would impact primarily the marine transportation system.
Congress still has to approve implementing legislation. Would be interesting to know how the presidential candidates feel about this agreement.
A great New York Times article , “Palau vs the Poachers,” looking at Palau’s attempts to police their waters as a microcosm of the problems created by poaching and overfishing.
I’ll repeat my oft stated contention that we do not spend nearly enough time in the Western Pacific where the US has a huge chunk of Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). There is a new Marine Reserve to protect. Plus we have an obligation to help former US territories that are now independent island nations struggling to effectively protect their own fisheries.
The work of “SkyTruth” and Google in crowd sourcing fisheries intelligence recounted here is encouraging, but there is simply to little enforcement. There were a couple of paragraphs that particularly stood out to me.
The oceans belong to everyone and no one, and the general perception is that they are too big to need protection. We also tend to think of fish as an ever-regenerating crop, there forever for our taking. But roughly 90 percent of the world’s ocean stocks are depleted or overexploited; one study predicts that by 2050, the sea could contain more plastic waste than fish. Though most governments have neither the inclination nor the resources to patrol the oceans, Palau is trying a different approach, and whether it succeeds or fails may have consequences for the entire planet.
In the span of one human lifetime, humankind has become brutally adept at plundering the seas. In the late 1940s, the annual global catch was roughly 16.5 million tons; now, after decades of innovation, this number is about 94 million tons. ‘‘That’s equivalent in weight of the entire human population at the turn of the 20th century, removed from the sea each and every year,’’ Paul Greenberg, an author of books about fish and seafood, told me.
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