Category Archives: News

UNITAS Photo/Exercise

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Nice photo of Escanaba in formation with Argentine and Brazilian frigates as part of UNITAS (Thanks Lee).

https://i0.wp.com/www.navy.mil/management/photodb/photos/110504-N-ZI300-376.jpg

110504-N-ZI300-376 ATLANTIC OCEAN (May 4, 2011) The U.S. Coast Guard cutter USCGC Escanaba (WMEC 907), Brazlian navy ship BNS Bosisio (F 48) and Argentinian navy ship ANS Almirante Brown (F 10) move into formation for a photo exercise during the Atlantic phase of UNITAS 52. The formation included a total of ten ships from the U.S., Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. UNITAS Atlantic is a multinational exercise as part of Southern Seas 2011. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Steve Smith)

(Click the links above for info on the other ships in the photo.)

Here is a report of a live firing exercise against a drone, conducted as part of the larger exercise.

Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC) Update, 6 May 2011

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Conceptual Rendering of the OPCThe Acquisitions Directorate released their draft specifications for the Offshore Patrol cutter (OPC) Monday, May 2. This is certainly a welcome step, but in some ways it seems the plan ahead has gotten murkier rather than clearer. The description of the ship available to the public has, over time, become more general rather than more specific, and the timing of critical events is now more uncertain.

This release comes five to six months after the previously announced planned release date, as had been published on their website until it was changed this week. Currently the only milestone with a projected date on the Acquisitions Directorate website is “May – June 20, 2011 – Draft Specification Review” everything else is TBD (to be determined). This was the near term plan as it had been previously published: Continue reading →

Another Sovereignty Dispute Stand-Off

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File:Patrullero "Centinela" (2).JPGAdd another to the list of places where national interests clash over claims to offshore areas. Spain and Britain have had a long running dispute over Gibraltar and the surrounding waters. Despite progress toward “European Unity,” they don’t  seem to be getting along very well. File:HMS Sabre - P285.jpg

May 3, a Spanish patrol vessel, the Atalaya (just a bit larger than a 210, photo of a sistership top left), entered waters claimed by Britain and ordered all anchored merchant shipping to leave. The authorities in Gibraltar sent out HMS Scimitar (illustrated to the right by her sister ship) to enforce their position.

None of the merchant ships weighed anchor and after about an hour and a half the Atalaya left. “Strongly worded note to follow.”

Rather sad to see “HMS Scimitar” as a 52 foot boat when in a previous generation it was one of a class of 67 destroyers.

Indicating the Importance of Container Security

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EagleSpeak has found an interesting article in the Journal of Commerce that seems to confirm the importance of Container Security. It is an old story but Wikileaks makes public, information about Saifullah Paracha, a one time travel agent, business man, and al Qaeda operative who offered to help smuggle in explosives and biological or radiological material. He was arrested in 2003 after his son, now serving 30 years on terrorism related charges turned him.

Voting Opens for 2011 “Milbloggie” Awards

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Voting has opened for the fifth annual “MilBloggie” awards, recognizing military related blogs in ten categories. You can cast your votes here.

The U. S. Coast Guard nominees are:

CGBlog
http://cgblog.org/

ryanerickson.com
http://ryanerickson.com/

Coast Guard Compass
http://coastguard.dodlive.mil/

Cadet Journal – United States Coast Guard Academy
http://www.cga.edu/display.aspx?id=13193

Those of us at CGBlog would appreciate your vote. Winners will be announced on Friday, April 29.

Fleet Mix–Where are the Trade-Offs?

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A recent GAO report offers some insight into how the AC&I budget will work for the next few years. The report is accessible here: Coast Guard: Observations on Acquisition Management and Efforts to Reassess the Deepwater Program
GAO-11-535T, Apr 13, 2011
Quick View Quick view toggle Summary (HTML)   Highlights Page (PDF)   Full Report (PDF, 18 pages)   Accessible Text

The thrust of the report seems to be that while the coast Guard has made some progress in managing its own programs since terminating Deepwater there are still a lot of problems and many of them stem from being unrealistic about budget expectations. There also seems to be an underlying frustration because the Coast Guard is not offering real alternatives to the fleet mix proposed by the discredited “Deepwater” program.

“We reported in 2009 that the administration’s budget projections indicated that the DHS annual budget was expected to remain constant or decrease over the next decade. When the Coast Guard submitted its fiscal year 2012 budget request, it also released its fiscal years 2012-2016 acquisition capital investment plan. In reviewing this plan, we found that the Coast Guard’s projected funding levels for fiscal years 2013 through 2016 are significantly higher than budgets previously appropriated or requested and therefore may be unrealistic. This unrealistic acquisition budget planning exacerbates the challenges Coast Guard acquisition programs face. As seen in figure 2, the average annual budget plan from fiscal year 2012-through fiscal year 2016 is about $520 million, or approximately 37 percent, higher than the average Coast Guard acquisition budgets previously appropriated or requested during the past 6 years.”

Continue reading →

Acquisition Directorate April Newsletter Published

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The Acquisition Directorate has published the April edition of their “Delivering the Goods” newsletter. The main story is about the upgrade of the H-65 helicopters to “D” models and future plans for additional improvements. It also talks about the R&D Centers research into keeping out invasive species; there is a short update of the Mission Effectiveness Program; and Master Chief Ayer talks about the choices that resulted in the Response Boat-Medium and why it is not ice capable.

You can get a pdf copy here.

Russian and US Coast Guard meet–a Russian WMSL

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Bertholf-and-Vorovskyhttp://cgvi.uscg.mil/media/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=1211594

110421-G-6458F-007-Bertholf and Vorovsky

KODIAK, Alaska – The crews of the ships Bertholf and Vorovsky sail west to the Bering Sea on a joint exchange April 21, 2011. The Vorovsky is a Krivak-class frigate commissioned in 1990 for the Russian Federal Security Service and the Bertholf is the first of the Coast Guard’s National Security Cutters, Legend-class, commissioned in 2008. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Sara Francis

This photo was taken during an exchange visit by the Russian Federal Security Service ship Vorovsky to Kodiak. This is the latest in a regular series of bi-annual port visits between the Coast Guard and the Russian Security Service, alternating visits between Alaskan and Siberian ports. The Seventeenth District Commander and the Chief of the Northeast Border Directorate of the Federal Security Service of Russia and some of their staff members used the opportunity to meet.

As the Russian equivalent of our National Security Cutter or Maritime Security, Large (WMSL), I find it interesting to compare the Russian vessel with the Bertholf. The Vorovsky, almost 20 years older, is the newest of seven “Krivak III” (NATO designation) class frigate, derived from the Soviet Navy’s “Krivak” class, but with modifications for “coast guard” tasks, primarily the addition a helicopter deck and hanger. Continue reading →