Author Archives: Chuck Hill

Document Alert: “Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker Modernization: Background and Issues for Congress”

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ice-breakers-540688_1280

The US Naval Institute News Service has provided access to a report to Congress, “Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker Modernization: Background and Issues for Congress,”by Ronald O’Rourke, Specialist in Naval Affairs, September 25, 2015.

I am repeating here the last two paragraphs of the Summary. I think they explain quite clearly the sad state of our icebreaker fleet.

“On September 1, 2015, the White House issued a fact sheet in conjunction with a visit to Alaska by President Obama indicating that the Administration, in its own internal planning, had at some point over the past two years deferred procurement of a new polar icebreaker to FY2022, but that this has now been changed to FY2020. The newly announced procurement date of FY2020 is a two-year acceleration from the previously unpublicized date of FY2022, and a two-year deferral from the FY2018 date implied in the FY2013 and FY2014 budget submissions. The fact sheet states that the Administration will also “begin planning for construction of additional icebreakers” beyond the one that the Administration proposes to procure in FY2020.
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“A polar icebreaker procured in FY2020 might enter service in 2024 or 2025. Polar Star has been refurbished and reentered service in December 2012 for an intended period of 7 to 10 years—a period that will end between December 2019 and December 2022. Consequently unless the service life of Polar Star is further extended (or unless Polar Sea is repaired and returned to service), there will be a period of perhaps two to six years during which the United States will have no operational heavy polar icebreakers. The issue for Congress is whether to approve, reject, or modify the Administration’s plans for sustaining and modernizing the polar icebreaking fleet.”

Ramblings on the Russian Naval Attack on Syria

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You have probably heard that Four Russian naval vessels based in the Caspian Sea have launched 26 missiles against targets in Syria. This attack demonstrates a capability similar to that of the US Tomahawk missile.

What you might not realize is how small the Russians ships that launched the attack really were. While the US surface vessels equipped with Tomahawk are Burke class destroyers and Ticonderoga class cruisers of 8,000 to 10,000 tons, the Russian operation involved only a one small frigate and three small corvettes. The corvettes were smaller than a 210, and the frigate was less than two thirds the size of a 378. All four were considerably smaller than the projected Offshore Patrol Cutter. All four together displace only slightly more than a single Bertholf class.

The largest ship, Dagestan, is a Gepard class light frigate or large corvette, 1,930 tons (full load), 102.14 m (335.1 ft) in length overall, 13.09 m (42.9 ft) of beam, with eight Kalibr (SS-N-27) anti-surface missiles, SA-N-4 AAW missiles, a 76.2 mm gun, two six barreled 30 mm guns, four 533 mm (21″) heavy weight torpedo tubes, and an RBU-6000 ASW  rocket launcher.

The other three, Grad Sviyazhsk, Uglich, Veliky Ustyug, were Buyan-M class corvettes, displacing 950 tons full load, with a maximum speed of 25 knots, armed with Kalibr (SS-N-27) anti-surface missiles, 100-mm and 30-mm guns, and Igla-1M air defense missiles.

While the US Navy has begun talking about distributed lethality, the Russians are practicing it.

Certainly the Coast Guard is not going to arm their ships like this in peacetime, but we might want to keep the possibility in mind if things start to go south.

 

Navy Chooses Longbow Hellfire

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Lockheed Martin animation of Hellfire employment from an LCS

The US Naval Institute Proceedings is reporting that Navy has committed to selection of the Longbow Hellfire as an interim missile to arm the Littoral Combat Ships.

“For the LCS deployment, a single Longbow Hellfire launcher with a 24-missile capacity will be integrated with the LCS SSMM, which will be part of one of three weapon stations. Navy officials point out that Longbow Hellfire integration for the LCS SSMM will require only software modifications; no changes to the missile hardware or to the Army launcher or gas-containment system will be needed.

“In selecting the Longbow Hellfire, the Navy also will be able to draw from an available inventory of thousands of missiles already stockpiled for the Army, avoiding the need to spend money on new production.

“Navy officials emphasize that the Longbow Hellfire meets the requirement of the LCS Capabilities Description Document for a standoff-engagement capability for fast inshore attack craft.  An “increment 3” of the SSMM, while still going through modifications, now is expected to be ready to deploy aboard LCSs with the Longbow Hellfire in 2017.”

As we have discussed before, this weapon system seems like a good one for arming cutters against the possibility of an attack by highly maneuverable, high speed craft. In quantity the missiles might also be effective against larger targets.

It is likely the Coast Guard could add this capability at relatively low cost, if they made a case for it. As noted there are already large stocks of the missile. It seems likely that these weapons will be replaced on the LCSs before all the Offshore Patrol Cutters are complete. There are likely to be large numbers of Hellfire considered semi-obsolescent as they are replaced by the JAGM.

Weapons Interdicted in the Arabian Sea

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This is one of several reports I have seen of the interdiction a dhow carrying weapons believed to have been en route from Iran to Yemen.

There are a number of unanswered questions about this operation. We don’t know who did the initial intercept and boarding. We don’t really know where the vessel was going.

What we do know is that the cargo included a number of anti-tank weapons, most of which were dumped at sea. A USN destroyer, USS Forrest Sherman, arrived on scene after the initial intercept to assist in the investigation. The dhow and its crew were released after the arms were confiscated.

I strongly suspect Coast Guard personnel may have been involved in this operation, if not directly, at least to the extent that they were involved in the training of those that were directly involved. Hopefully we will learn more in the future.

Shipping LNG in the Arctic

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We have some indication, we will soon see LNG being shipped in the Arctic. gCaptain reports an apparent intention of a Chinese/Greek consortium to build five ice capable LNG tankers for the transport of Russian LNG via the Arctic.

If these ships actually use an Arctic route to China, it will almost certainly be via the Northern Sea Route close to Russia rather than the North West Passage near Canada and the US, but both routes must exit very close to Alaska as the traffic moves through the 45 mile wide Bering Strait and past the Diomedes and St. Lawrence Island.

There is no indication of how large these proposed LNG tankers are, but take a look at the size of the tanks on this LNG tanker in this photo, one of several you can find at this gCaptain post.

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Yes, those are people casting the shadows.

Innovation in Propellers

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Tip vortices – conventional versus Kappel. Tip vortices are tubes of circulating water that are formed at the tip as the propeller generates thrust.

Tip vortices – conventional versus Kappel. Tip vortices are tubes of circulating
water that are formed at the tip as the propeller generates thrust.

gCapatain has photos of a new type of propeller.

Although I have a hard time seeing it in the photos, this shape is similar in concept to the upturned wing tips that now common on commercial aircraft. Propellers are after all, really just wings that rotate around a central hub. Having seen this, I now wonder why we haven’t seen this before.

Diagrams of fluid flow over a airfloil section usually show a linear flow from the leading edge to the trailing edge, but actually there is also a span-wise flow that spills off the tips and creates vortices. They add drag and increase noise.

Photo: The air flow from the wing of this crop duster is made visible by a technique that uses colored smoke rising from the ground

Of course the reason the airlines use these devices is to improve fuel economy. The principle also works for propellers.

New SeaPay

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The Coast Guard has begun a new SeaPay system as reported by Coast Guard All Hands.

The new five-table system takes into consideration desirability of different cutter platforms, personnel tempo, deployment lengths and programmed operational hours.

“We made a conscious decision to shift most of the sea pay increases to mid-level enlisted paygrades in an effort to incentivize them to return to sea duty assignments,” said Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard Steven Cantrell. “A three-level system just wasn’t enough, and it didn’t allow flexibility to change with the times. These changes don’t take place in a vacuum – a lot of decision and a lot of discussion went into these just to get it right.”

This system is relatively complex, but it appears a realistic effort to achieve the stated goals.

Can’t help believe this only happened because we have a “Cutterman” as Commandant who understands that all sea duty is not equal.

The linked post includes the five pay charts.

Closer Coast Guard Ties with Vietnam

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The Vietnamese have not had a coast guard very long, just two years, but it looks like after a recent visit by our Commandant, the US Coast Guard will be working more closely with them. The US had already committed to financing the purchase of US made patrol boats for the Vietnamese Coast Guard to the tune of $18M. We discussed this earlier here and here.

As you probably know, the Vietnamese and Chinese have an ongoing dispute over a large area of the South China Sea. A recent change has authorized the their Coast Guard to use force as necessary to expel those who violate law from Vietnamese waters.