gCaptain brings us this video of an Alaska Patrol made on USCGC Boutwell.
378s are still out there doing the job.
Boutwell ALPAT Video
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Category Archives: Arctic
Chinese Navy Operating Off Alaska
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that five Chinese Navy vessels (three surface combatants, an LPD, and a replenishment vessel) have been operating in international waters near Alaska.
This may have something to do with their recent exercises with Russia. It may also be that they hope to discourage US freedom of navigation exercises near China with the idea, “Now you see how we feel.”
Nothing really to get excited about, but a nice reminder that for literally thousands of miles of US coast, the only US warships around are Coast Guard cutters, and they are not that well armed.
President Calls for More Icebreakers
The New York Times is reporting that, in a Speech today, the President will call for new icebreakers for the Coast Guard including accelerating the one currently planned and for additional icebreakers beyond that.
“The aging Coast Guard fleet is not keeping pace with the challenge, the administration acknowledged, noting that the service has the equivalent of just two “fully functional” heavy icebreakers at its disposal, down from seven during World War II. Russia, by contrast, has 41 of the vessels, with plans for 11 more. China unveiled a refurbished icebreaker in 2012 and is building another.
“Mr. Obama will propose speeding up the acquisition of a replacement icebreaker that had been planned for 2022, setting a new date of 2020, the White House said. He will also propose that planning begin on the construction of new ones, asking Congress to provide “sufficient resources” to fund them.”
Hopefully these WAGBs and the rumored additional National Security will move the perception of what is a normal AC&I budget closer to a realistic level.
Time for User Pays?
A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew hoists 18 crewmen from Shell’s drilling rig Kulluk 80 miles southwest of Kodiak City, Alaska, Dec. 29, 2012. U.S. Coast Guard Photo
gCaptain reports that Shell Oil’s attempts to drill in the Arctic are adversely effecting its operations elsewhere. The articles goes on to discuss the Coast Guard’s efforts in support of the operation.
“That for me is the opportunity cost,” Admiral Paul Zukunft, commandant of the Coast Guard, told Reuters in his office at the agency’s Washington, D.C. headquarters late last week. “It means you do less somewhere else in order to supplement activity in the Arctic.”
Perhaps this is a place where we should be applying “User Pays.”
Canadian Seapower, Bottoming Out
A good review of the state of the Canadian Navy and Coast Guard, including their icebreakers and patrol ships. In some ways, they may be worse off than the USCG.
“Commandant Sees Bright Future for Coast Guard Acquisition Programs”
National Defense Magazine reports that the Commandant, while addressing the National Press Club on August 5, made some remarkably positive statements about his expectations for the coming budget year.
“One day after the Coast Guard’s 225th birthday, its commandant predicted that the service would be receiving a big present this year: the largest acquisition budget in its history.”
There were few details, but the Commandant did refer to the prospects for Coast Guard Icebreakers.
“’This is generating a lot of interest and I’m very optimistic that on my watch we will see — no fooling — forward progress as we look at building a national fleet of icebreakers,’ he said.”
We will have to wait to find out what this really means. Will the OPCs be funded; will the program be accelerated? Will we ever see Multi-Year funding of the Webber Class WPCs? Will we see the four aircraft shortfall in the planned fixed wing fleet addressed (and the additional recently identified shortfall in fixed wing flight hours)? Will we see new Inland tenders and new domestic icebreakers? Will we see the obsolete shore facilities upgraded?
Certainly we will not see all the problems fixed in 2016.
Funding for an icebreaker alone could result in the largest budget ever, but I’ve seen no indication we are far enough along in the procurement process to warrant full funding in FY2016. We have authorization for the Navy to build Icebreakers for the Coast Guard. But that would not increase AC&I budget.
The FY2016 AC&I budget request was only $1,017.3M. In 2012 the AC&I budget was $1,463,968,000. I am not sure that FY2012 was the largest ever AC&I budget, but it does mean if the 2016 budget is going to be “the biggest” Congress will need to add at least $446.7M. I suppose several projects could be aggregated to come up to this amount, but there I another possibility.
Could this mean the Coast Guard will get a ninth Bertholf class? It makes a certain amount of sense. The FY2016 budget request funds not a single major cutter. The Fleet mix study has documented the need for a ninth Bertholf. We have a hot, increasingly efficient shipbuilding process, and the shipbuilder, HII, is certainly not without influence in Congress. A third NSC in Hawaii could significantly boost our presence in the Western Pacific and would make the long promised Crew Rotation Concept more nearly possible (not to say I think it could work).
Just adding a Bertholf class to the FY2016 AC&I request would bump it to close to $1.7B, still short of the $2+B/year the CG needs. Will we see genuine long term movement to adequate funding for the Coast Guard?
Russians Build Three 33,540 ton Nuclear Icebreakers
Russia’s ’50 let Pobedy’ is currently the world’s largest icebreaker, displacing over 25,000 tons. Photo: Creative Commons
gCaptain reports the Russians are building three huge 33,540 ton 173.3 meter (569 foot) nuclear powered icebreakers that are expected to be delivered by 2020, with the first to be completed in 2017.
These ships will be almost two and a half times as large as the Polar Class.
President’s Speech at the Graduation of the Academy Class of 2015
The President spoke at the graduation ceremony for the Coast Guard Academy class of 2015. You can read the text of the speech here.
Sweden to Modernize 40 Year Old Icebreakers
If we needed proof that icebreakers can be long lived vessels, there is news from MarineLink that Sweden is modernizing two forty year old icebreakers.
New Icebreaker–For the Great Lakes?
Launch of USCGC Mackinaw (WLBB-30) on April 2, 2005. Photo by Peter J. Markham.
gCaptain is reporting that the severe conditions in the Great Lakes over the last two winters and the resulting loss of iron production, have prompted support for another Great Lakes icebreaker at least as large as Mackinaw.
“This is the second year in a row a brutal winter has slowed early season shipments of iron ore and other cargos on the Lakes. In April 2014, shipments of iron ore totaled just 2.7 million tons, a staggering 53.3 percent below the month’s long-term average.
“As a result, Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) included a provision in the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2015 (H.R. 1987) approved by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that directs the U.S. Coast Guard to design and build a new, multi-mission icebreaker to enhance its capabilities on the Great Lakes.”
This could be an opportunity not only to build another icebreaker for the Great Lakes but also to design the three Medium Icebreakers the High Latitude Study has shown the Coast Guard needs.
A ship along the lines of Russia’s new oblique icebreaker would be particularly useful in the Great Lakes in that it would open a channel wider than the beam of the icebreaker itself.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 