Category Archives: News

Drug Running “How to” and Radioactive Shipping Containers

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Eagle Speak has taken a break from his usual favorite topic of piracy to talk about drug smuggling and Port Security. Starting with reference to a Wall Street Journal book review (I Am the Market: How to Smuggle Cocaine by the Ton, In Five Easy Lessons, By Luca Rastello, Faber and Faber, 178 pages, $22), he ties in a report of a container of radioactive Cobalt 60 that has been sitting on a Genoa, Italy pier for 6 months because no one seems to know what to do with it. Lots of questions about the container and its contents which came from Saudi Arabia, ” Why did it take so long to detect the radiation? What does this say about port security in Saudi Arabia? Were the shipping documents falsified? Was anyone paid off to allow this shipment? What other shipments of hazardous materials would a small bit of Bakeesh allow to go unchecked?”–interesting reading.

The Battle for Convoy ON-166, 25 February 1943

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The Navy History Center is featuring a short narrative and photos from this classic convoy battle between eight escorts lead by Coast Guard Cutters Spencer and Campbell and 19 U-boats during the critical winter months of 1943.

For more information on the Coast Guard’s battles against the U-boats, there are a series of extensively captioned photos of 327s here, an accounting of “U.S. Coast Guard Combat Victories of World War II” which also lists significant losses is here, and a twenty page pdf on the Battle of the North Atlantic is here.

File:USCGC Spencer WPG-36.jpg
USCGC Spencer (WPG-36) in 1942 or 1943. Spencer sank U-175 with assistance of USCGC Duane, on April 17, 1943.

 

The Brits are not pulling out the the Western Atlantic/Caribbean

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Some of you may have seen reports such as this, that the Royal Navy is ending its warship patrols in the Western Atlantic and Caribbean. This would be significant for the Coast Guard, because of the long and successful cooperation between the Royal Navy and the Coast Guard in drug enforcement in the area.

While it is true that the Royal Navy will no longer send a warship into the area, they still plan to have a presence in the form of an RFA (Royal Fleet Auxiliary, roughly their equivalent of an MSC ship). This is not all bad. These ships frequently have very good helicopter facilities, they have had some significant successes catching smugglers, and they may be able to do more than a frigate or destroyer in the event of a natural disaster.

Changing US Naval Institute Mission Statement

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Hopefully, many of you are US Naval Institute members. The board is recommending changes to the organization’s mission statement. Members will get a chance to vote on the changes.

Reservations about the proposed changes are not so much about what they add, as what they seem to exclude.

There are discussions of the proposal here and here.

What is it all about? An open letter from world famous naval columnist, author, and theorist Norman Polmar: Continue reading →

Acquisitions Directorate Newletter, Feb 2011

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The new Acquisitions Directorate Newsletter for February 2011 is available here. The topics are

  • Coast Guard Awards Contracts for National Security Cutters 4 & 5
  • The Ocean Sentry: The Coast Guard’s Multi-Mission Aircraft

Plus Command Master Chief Ayer answers the question, “I see you have a project to replace the current Response Boat-Small with a new RB-S. What about other vessels and boats that are a lot older, are you planning to replace them?  How do you decide which assets get replaced?”

Why Arm Coast Guard Assets?

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Historically there have been two reasons to arm Coast Guard assets. Since 9/11 there is clearly another. Historically Coast Guard units were armed for law enforcement and to act as a naval reserve. The rationale added since 9/11 is to stop a maritime terrorist attack, and while there may be overlaps with the law enforcement and naval reserve mission capabilities, there are differences as well.

Continue reading →

A Call for More Coast Guard in the Pacific

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The US has the largest Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the world (roughly 12,000,000 sq.km.), and roughly a fourth of it is in the Pacific, far south of Alaska, and west of Hawaii, in fact much more of it than is in the Arctic. While warming Arctic waters have been attracting a lot of press, if not much substantial action, the Central and Western Pacific EEZ has received relatively little attention, maybe because they don’t have any Congressional representation. I don’t have good figures on this, but looking at this chart of the US EEZ, its apparent that if Coast Guard assets were distributed on the basis of size of the EEZ, about 80% of the Coast Guard would be based in the Pacific.

Each little island out there, if it is more than 400 nautical miles from the nearest land, is surrounded by at least 125,664 square miles (431,000 sq.km) of territorial sea, contiguous zone, EEZ, and perhaps some additional continental shelf.

New Zealand’s Foreign Minister, Murray McCully, has called for greater cooperation between the US and New Zealand. Specifically he is calling for more USCG activity in the South Pacific to stop illegal fishing and drug smuggling, “I believe the time has come for New Zealand, the US and Australia to dramatically step up our collective surveillance activity in the region to provide a comprehensive assault on illegal activity…”

Apparently, talks are in progress now.

A lot of old CG icebreaker sailors have pleasant memories of Christchurch, New Zealand. Relations with New Zealand have been cool for decades because of a ban on nuclear weapons in New Zealand waters and a refusal by the US to “confirm or deny” the presence of nuclear weapons on our ships (I think once we refused to answer if the Eagle had nuclear weapons on board and she was denied permission to enter a New Zealand port).

That may be changing, as in Costa Rica, it looks like while the US Navy may not be welcome in New Zealand, the Coast Guard may be.

In addition to Guam, US territories and possessions in the Pacific include:

The other nation in the area with substantial assets and interests is France.

HC-144 Gun Ship?

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An American company (ATK, Alliant Techsystems Inc now part of Northrop Grumman), is modifying the same basic airframe used for the Coast Guard HC-144 (the EADS CASA, now Airbus Military, CN-235) into a miniature AC-130 for the Jordanian Air Force. Source. (Note due to a broken link I have updated the post with an alternative source for the story.)

File:HC-144A Ocean Sentry (2).jpg

Image: http://cgig.uscg.mil/media/main.php?g2_itemId=231228&g2_imageViewsIndex=1

“ATK will install and integrate electro-optical targeting systems, a laser designator, aircraft self-protection equipment, and an armaments capability that includes Hellfire laser-guided missiles, 2.75-inch rockets, and a M230 link-fed 30mm chain gun.  ATK’s M230 family of guns serves on the Apache helicopter….ATK’s scope of work includes development, systems integration, aircraft modification, and testing.  Work will be performed in Jordan and at ATK facilities in Fort Worth, TX, Mesa, AZ and Pelham, AL.”

Looks like if we ever want to add an “airborne use of force” to these  aircraft, there is a source that will have already had the experience.