USCG Cutter Bear transits out of Torngat National Park, Canada, on Aug. 9, 2022. The Bear was partaking in the Tuugaalik phase of Operation Nanook, an annual exercise that allows the United States and multiple other partner nations to ensure security and enhance interoperability in Arctic waters. (Matthew Abban/U.S. Coast Guard)
This isn’t through the budgeting process, but it is more indication of the Congress’ bipartisan support for the Coast Guard. Seems likely much of this will be incorporated in the final budget.
Stars and Stripes reports on action by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, that would provide money for the third Polar Security Cutter, establish an Arctic Security Cutter program, and provide “more options for child care, better access to affordable housing and expanded medical care and education opportunities…”
The bill would authorize $14.94 billion for the service for fiscal 2023, which begins Oct. 1. It would amount to a 21.5% budget increase from fiscal 2021.
The bill would support greater Arctic presence, combat IUU fishing, and improve polution response.
United States and Russia sign Joint Contingency Plan for pollution response in the Bering and Chukchi Seas.
U.S. Coast Guard sent this bulletin at 02/02/2021 03:42 PM EST
News Release
U.S. Coast Guard 17th District Alaska Contact: Coast Guard Headquarters Media Relations Email: mediarelations@uscg.mil 17th District online newsroom
United States and Russia sign Joint Contingency Plan for pollution response in the Bering and Chukchi Seas.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Coast Guard and the Russian Federation’s Marine Rescue Service recently signed the 2020 Joint Contingency Plan of the United States of America & the Russian Federation in Combating Pollution on the Bering & Chukchi Seas.
On Feb. 1, 2021, the Acting Director Andrey Khaustov of the Russian Federation’s Marine Rescue Service (MRS) and the U.S. Coast Guard’s Deputy Commandant for Operations, Vice Adm. Scott Buschman signed the 2020 update to the Joint Contingency Plan (JCP), which is a bilateral agreement focused on preparing for and responding to transboundary maritime pollution incidents. The updated JCP promotes a coordinated system for planning, preparing and responding to pollutant substance incidents in the waters between the U.S. and Russia. The U.S. and Russian Federation have shared a cooperative bilateral agreement on trans-boundary marine pollution preparedness and response in this area since 1989. The newest JCP revision requires joint planning and trans-boundary exercise efforts to be coordinated by a Joint Planning Group led by Coast Guard District Seventeen and is guided by a non-binding two-year work plan. In addition, the updated JCP creates the new International Coordinating Officer role to help facilitate the critical sharing of information during coordinated response efforts.
“This is an important agreement between the U.S and the Russian Federation that ensures coordination between respective authorities and actively promotes the protection of our shared interests in these environmentally and culturally significant trans-boundary waters,” said Vice Adm. Scott Buschman, U.S. Coast Guard Deputy Commandant for Operations. “We look forward to continuing our necessary and productive relationship with the Marine Rescue Service and the opportunity to conduct joint training and exercises in the near future in order to ensure the protection of our nations’ critical natural resources.”
The shared maritime boundary between the U.S. and Russia in the Bering and Chukchi seas has notoriously poor weather conditions and limited resources to respond to pollution incidents. This plan primarily addresses international collaboration matters and as such is meant to augment each Country’s national response system as well as state, regional, and sub-regional (local) plans. In the United States, the operational aspects of the plan fall under the responsibility of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Seventeenth District Commander and Sector Anchorage.
A Coast Guard Air Station Savannah MH-65 Dolphin helicopter rests on the side of the Golden Ray, a 656-foot vehicle carrier, to drop off supplies for Coast Guard crews and port partners who attempt to locate and rescue the remaining four crewmembers aboard the Golden Ray, Sept. 9, 2019, in St. Simons Sound, near Brunswick, Georgia. A Coast Guard Air Station Savannah MH-65 Dolphin helicopter aircrew, Station Brunswick boat crews and other port partners rescued 20 people the morning of Sept. 8, after it was reported the vessel was disabled and listing. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Dickinson)
The Golden Ray wreck removal is an amazing piece of salvage work, with a strong dose of Environmental Protection, as they cut the hull into sections and haul it away. You can get updates here. I have posted some of the latest photos below to provide a taste of the magnitude of the work.
The Barge 455-8 deballasts as it receives Section Eight, the stern of the Golden Ray wreck. St. Simons Sound Incident response photo.
The Barge 455-8 is equipped with a containment barrier to capture any further pollution releases from the section. St. Simons Sound Incident response photo.
Incident Commander Chris Graff of Gallagher Marine Systems and U.S. Coast Guard Commander Efren Lopez, Federal On-scene Coordinator, observe lifting and pollution mitigation operations at the Golden Ray wreck site. St. Simons Sound Incident response photo.
An aerial observer surveys the vicinity of the Golden Ray wreck for signs of pollution and relays observations to recovery vessels on the water. St. Simons Sound Incident response photo.
Thanks to Paul C. for bringing this to my attention.
A Coast Guard Air Station Savannah MH-65 Dolphin helicopter rests on the side of the Golden Ray, a 656-foot vehicle carrier, to drop off supplies for Coast Guard crews and port partners who attempt to locate and rescue the remaining four crewmembers aboard the Golden Ray, Sept. 9, 2019, in St. Simons Sound, near Brunswick, Georgia. A Coast Guard Air Station Savannah MH-65 Dolphin helicopter aircrew, Station Brunswick boat crews and other port partners rescued 20 people the morning of Sept. 8, after it was reported the vessel was disabled and listing. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Dickinson)
gCaptain has a significant editorial that questions the Coast Guard’s plan for the grounded car carrier Golden Ray. This is not in my wheelhouse, but sounds like they have valid reservations about the proposed method of salvage and its possible adverse environmental impact. (OPA-90 is the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.)
“This is OPA 90’s biggest test ever. The question is, will the United States Coast Guard allow OPA-90 to be manipulated by responsible parties? Will they rewind the clock to the days before Exxon Valdez when polluters managed their own environmental disaster recovery efforts?”
Members of the Coast Guard Research, Development, Test and Evaluation Program (CG-926) and the Research and Development Center are in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to test usage of unmanned systems in the Arctic in Arctic Technology Evaluation 2018. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Alexandra Swan.
Coast Guard Kicks Off Arctic Technology Evaluation 2018
July 25, 2018
The Coast Guard is conducting its 2018 Arctic Technology Evaluation July 21-Aug. 3, 2018, in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.
This year’s Arctic research will focus on evaluating how unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), unmanned surface vehicles (USV) and an aerostat balloon can work together as a network. The Coast Guard’s Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) Program and Research and Development Center (RDC) are partnering with Alaska Clean Seas for this year’s activities.
The research team will conduct a number of search and rescue and environmental testing scenarios, including using the unmanned systems to detect a life raft and evaluating capabilities to detect and sample a simulated oil spill. The unmanned systems will be integrated with Persistent Systems Man Pack Unit 5 radios (MPU5) to test the potential communication relay. The research team will also compare UAS sensor performance at high latitudes with data gathered through the RDT&E Program’s Robotic Aircraft Sensor Program for Maritime.
Dan Sullivan, Sub-Committee chair (R, Alaska)(Lt.Col., US Marine Corps Reserve)
Gary Peters, ranking member (D, Michigan)(LCdr. US Navy Reserve, Supply Corps)
Bill Nelson, ranking member of the Commerce Committee (D, Florida)(Capt. US Army Reserve)(NASA Scuttle payload specialist)
Roger Wicker, Chairman of the Seapower sub-committee (R, Mississippi)(Lt.Col. ret. USAF reserve)
Richard Blumenthal (D, Connecticut) (USMC Reserve 1970 to 1976 discharges as Sargent)
Brian Schatz (D, Hawaii)
Ed Markey (D, Mass.) (Spec4, US Army Reserve, 1968-73)
Jim Inhofe (R, Oklahoma) (Spec4, US Army, 1956-1958)
Maria Cantwell (D, Washington)
You can also check out the original post from the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. (Same video is available there, but the meeting does not actually start on that version of the video until minute 36.) There you can also find the written statements of the other three witness who constituted the second panel. The Commandant was the sole witness on the first panel.
This was something of a love fest for the Coast Guard with repeated praise for the people and actions of the Coast Guard.
This hearing was reputedly about how the Coast Guard had been impacted by the unusually severe Hurricane season. There is not a lot new here but there were some interesting remarks.
Polar Icebreaker Contracts
The intention is to Contract for the first Icebreaker and then employ block buy for the next two (28m). To me this seems to negate most of the advantage of a block buy. I don’t believe we will or should buy one and then wait until we have tried it out before contracting for the next two. That would necessitate a delay of at least five years during which we would still have the nightmare scenario of our only heavy icebreaker having no rescue if it should break down in the ice–certainly not an impossibility even with a new ship. If we are going to contract for the remaining two before testing the first, we might as well block buy all three.
First of class is always the most expensive. If the shipyard gets a block buy they know that initial improvements in productivity can be amortized over the entire block buy quantity. In some cases, in order to win the whole project, the shipyard will cut the price of the first ship substantially knowing they will make a profit over the entire project.
If we buy one and then block buy the second and third, we have paid for improvements to the winning yard with the first contract and minimized the chances for a competitive bid for numbers two and three.
Legislation has capped DOD participation in icebreaker procurement, so the bulk of icebreaker procurement costs will come out of the Coast Guard budget.
Authorization
There was a lot of discussion about the need to have the Coast Guard Authorization Bill signed into law, still not approved. You can see it here.
Other topics
There was a discussion of the high cost of the Coast Guard response to the recent series of Hurricanes.
Representative Sullivan spent a lot of time, discussing and advocating for an eleven mile road from King Cove (population estimate–989) to Cold Bay, Alaska (population estimate–122) which has an all-weather airport with two runways, one 10,180 feet and one 6285 feet in length. The Coast Guard connection is that the road would minimize or eliminate the necessity for the Coast Guard to Medivac emergencies from King Cove by helicopter, which is frequently hazardous. It is a Federal issue, because the road would run through a Federal reserve. The Commandant fully supported the desirability of completing the proposed single lane gravel road as a means of minimizing the requirement for helicopter medivac.
Video Breakdown
28m Domestic icebreakers–Design work on new domestic icebreakers is expected to start in 2030. That sounds a bit late to me. Mackinaw was commissioned in 2006 so if that is what he is really talking about, that makes sense, but the 140 foot icebreaking tugs are a different story. The first for of these will be 51 years old in 2030. More than half of them have already completed in-service which was expected to add 15 years to their service life. Morro Bay, at least, is expected to reach the end of her service life in 2030, and considering how long it takes us to build a ship we really need to start the process not later than 2025.
45m Western Pacific Fisheries Protection–They have not seen much risk of Illegal, Unregulated, or Unreported fishing.
51m Inland River Tenders
56m We may need to replace the 52 ft MLBs with something larger than the 47 foot MLB sometime in the future, but their end of life is not yet apparent
58m Coast Guard Museum in New London
60m Sexual Assault in the CG
1h02m Puerto Rico/Virgin Islands continuing commitment and its effects on drug seizures and alien migrant interdiction.
1h05m Vessel homeporting
1h08 CG center of expertise, particularly in regard to clean up spills in ice and fresh water
This is well outside my wheelhouse, so no comment, but MarineLink has an interview with Assistant Commandant for Prevention Policy, Rear Admiral Paul Thomas.
This is well outside my wheelhouse, so no comment, but 
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 