The first African-American woman to join the Coast Guard in 1945, Olivia Hooker, 96 (she retired at age 87), provided some prospective as she met with service men and women of the current generation. “I have seen a lot of progress,” check out her story here.
Yesterday was a bad day for the Libyan Coast Guard (here, here, and here). You have to have some sympathy for sailors who find themselves so over-matched, the largest vessel was smaller than a 110, but we can also recall that Qaddafi’s forces also tried to attack the US Coast Guard using SCUD missiles in 1986.
On the subject of “What Does It Take to Sink a Ship?”, this approximately 106 foot long, 116 ton vessel was hit by missile with a 300 pound warhead and still it managed to limp to shore, where it beached itself.
The Acquisition Directorate has given us another illustration of an OPC conceptual design, apparently the same design used earlier.
Acquisition Directorate’s Disclaimer: “The conceptual renderings posted on this website are for artistic display purposes only and do not convey any particular design, Coast Guard design preferences, or other requirements for the OPC.”
We should see a draft “Request for Proposal” (RFP) in the next three months.
Meanwhile the list of companies interested in building the ships has grown to twelve: Austal, BAE, Bath Iron Works, Bollinger, Derecktor, Eastern Ship Building Group, Marinette Marine, General Dynamics NASSCO, Northrop Grumman, Todd Pacific, Signal International, and VT Halter Marine. (Click on “List of Interested Companies” here for more detail).
A previous more detailed update from November 2010 here.
Marines Blog, the official blog of the US Marine corps reports, “The U.S. Senate passed a resolution on March 7, 2011, declaring March 30 ‘Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day.’ The resolution currently awaits a decision by the House. This day will be recognized across the U.S. as a day of commemoration, a day to pay the proper respect to the veterans who sacrificed so much during the war.”
A bit overdue, the entire post is worth a read.
The Military Sealift Command (MSC) has changed some of their organizational titles, apparently without any real change in organization. Here are the changes.
| Former Name | New Name |
| Sealift Logistics Command Atlantic (SEALOGLANT) | Military Sealift Command Atlantic (MSCLANT) |
| Sealift Logistics Command Pacific (SEALOGPAC) | Military Sealift Command Pacific (MSCPAC) |
| Sealift Logistics Command Europe (SEALOGEUR) | Military Sealift Command Europe and Africa (MSCEURAF) |
| Sealift Logistics Command Central (SEALOGCENT) | Military Sealift Command Central (MSCCENT) |
| Sealift Logistics Command Far East (SEALOGFE) | Military Sealift Command Far East (MSCFE) |
“In addition, MSC’s six ship support units now carry “MSC” before their command names: For instance, Ship Support Unit San Diego is now Military Sealift Command Ship Support Unit San Diego, or MSC SSU San Diego. MSC’s five other ship support units are in Naples, Bahrain, Singapore, Guam and Yokohama.”
We have been assured that, “This name change is the result of an extensive strategic communication effort led by MSC headquarters.”
As the Coast Guard builds it’s Acquisitions Directorate it may be useful to consider some ship building history. It’s almost two years old now, but Norman Friedman reflected on the “creative tension” that once characterized both American and British naval ship building in the July 2008 issues of USNI proceedings.
“In the past, warship procurement was very much a triangular process, marked by what might be called creative tension. The points of the triangle were the operational navy, the professional in-house designers, and the programmers responsible for paying for the fleet. Typically the operational navy (Office of the Chief of Naval Operations or OPNAV in our Navy) thought of what it would like, without much feeling for the technological (or cost) implications of what it wanted. Its ideas were reflected in tentative (“single-sheet”) ship characteristics. The Preliminary Design section of Naval Sea Systems Command sketched a corresponding ship. In effect it estimated what the stated requirements would cost and whether they were practicable at all. Continue reading
The Navy Times reports President Obama is planning to give the commencement address at the Coast Guard Academy Class of 2011 graduation ceremony on May 18.
You can see last year’s West Point commencement address here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAMbwcBupEY&feature=related
The president’s address begins at minute 3:20.
A recent post concerning the unexpected presence of high tech Russian made SA-24, man portable anti-aircraft missiles in no-fly zone over Libya had an interesting side note, “Venezuela, for example, is buying thousands of SA-24s, and international watchdog groups worry that they will end up in the hands of narco-traffickers and insurgent groups.”
Actually I’m a bit surprised we haven’t seen more instances of terrorist or criminal organizations using high tech weapons. Perhaps criminals recognize that this could provoke unwanted additional attention.
(Video of the weapon in operation here)
Japan Security Watch provides a snap shot of what the US military is doing to aid in this disaster.
For the forth time this year, the Indian Navy and Coast Guard has taken down a pirate mother-ship. Responding to an attack in progress on the merchant ship MV Maersk Kensington, they not only foiled the attack, they went on to capture 16 pirates and free the 16 crewmen being held as hostages on the mother-ship, a previously pirated Iranian trawler. Eaglespeak has the details and pictures. The Indians seem to have an effective ROE.
Previous incidents were reported here, here, and here. Just an impression, but I suspect the Indians have figured out if you target the fuel drums on the mother ships, everyone will quickly abandon ship.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 