A couple of closely related posts:
From DODBuzz: Coast Guard Vital to Anti-Drug Ops in Latin America: Navy Admiral
From USNI News: SOUTHCOM Tidd: Russia, Iran and China Expanding Influence in Central and South America
(Thanks to Lee for bringing these to my attention)
Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian interviews the Commandant, Adm. Paul Zukunft, at the 2016 Reagan National Defense Forum.
The Commandant hit many of themes we have heard him discuss before, but there was also mention of beginning to replace the inland Aids to Navigation fleet. We were supposed to have had a joint program with the Corp of Engineers to develop a common design, but I haven’t heard anything about that for several years now. They are certainly due for replacement. It almost sounds like they just realized they needed to do something about this.
Where is that 30 year shipbuilding plan?
Another video, this one almost an hour.
John Francis Kelly (born May 11, 1950, pictured here in 2012) is a retired United States Marine Corps general and the former commander of United States Southern Command.
The New York Times has reported that President-Elect Trump has chosen retired Marine General and former SOUTHCOM commander John Kelly to head the Department of Homeland Security.
General Kelly served as SOUTHCOM November 19, 2012 – January 16, 2016. That experience should make him extremely familiar with the Coast Guard. He has supported the Coast Guard in the past, and here.
As I understand it, he will need to have a waiver from the Senate to serve because he retired less than seven years ago, but it appears he will have broad bi-partisan support having received the endorsement of President Obama’s former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
CIMSEC has a short background article on the scope of, and reaction to, illegal fishing in Latin America.
You might recognize the ship pictured at the head of the CIMSEC post. It is one of a class we talked about earlier.
The post also talks about the sinking of a Chinese Fishing Vessel by an Argentine patrol vessel, an incident we also discussed here.
The two Peruvian patrol vessels seen launched in the post and in the YouTube video above, BAP Rio Cañete (PM-205) and BAP Rio Pativilca (PM-204), are according to a Google translation of this post, 55.3 meters (181 feet) long, 8.5 meters (28 feet) of beam, and a draft of 2.3 meters (7’7″). They have two diesels totaling 6690 HP for a 22 knot max speed, a range of 3600 miles at 14 knots. The crew is 25 with additional space for up to 14 additional boarding party members to man the two RHIBs carried in davits. They are expected to be armed with a Typhoon weapon system, similar to the Mk38 mod2 but with a 30mm gun plus two .50 cal. Their design is based on the South Korean Taegeuk class cutters.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 