Members of Vice Adm. Joe Buzzella’s family put on his new shoulder boards during his promotion to vice admiral during the Pacific Area assumption of command ceremony in Alameda, California, March 26, 2026. As commander of the Coast Guard Pacific Area and Defense Force West, Buzzella oversees all Coast Guard operations across the Pacific theater- an area encompassing more than 74 million square miles. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Austin Wiley)

Below is a news release. When I first read it, I wondered why they had not mentioned the previous PACAREA. That was because he had been Acting Area Commander for more than eight months. Vice Adm. Joe Buzzella has a very impressive background.

His predecessor was Vice Adm. Andrew J. Tiongson who retired July 18, 2025.

WarshipCam -Official, March 29 at 4:49 PM
All six Bahrain-based USCG Sentinel-class cutters eastbound in the Singapore Straits – USCGC Charles Moulthrope (WPC-1141),USCGC Robert Goldman (WPC-1142), USCGC Glen Harris (WPC-1144), USCGC Emlen Tunnell (WPC-1145), USCGC John Scheuerman (WPC-1146) & USCGC Clarence Sutphin Jr. (WPC-1147) – March 2026 SRC: X-@StraitsSights

I had been wondering what has happened to the Coast Guard based in Bahrain since the conflict with Iran began. It looked like their base may have been hit. Saw this today on Facebook. It looks like at least the six patrol craft are still operational and out of the danger area for now.

Apparently no plans to use them to escort ships through the Strait any time soon.

Ice in Lake Superior is not unusual. This photo is from 2019. “Beset in ice, the M/V Stewart J. Cort and three other Great Lakes vessels await the assistance of an icebreaker on Lake Superior.”

Marine Link reports,

“A little over a day and half since the Soo Locks opened providing access to Lake Superior and critical raw materials like iron ore, and the U.S.-flagged Great Lakes commercial fleet is at a standstill in the St. Marys River and Whitefish Bay, the critical connection between Lakes Superior and all other Great Lakes.”

Apparently USCGC Mackinaw has had an engineering casualty and is unable to help. A Canadian icebreaker was enroute, but diverted to help Canadian vessels.

“The early opening of the St. Lawarnce Seaway and Welland Canal (emphasis applied–Chuck) has put greater demand on a mission that is not adequately resourced. Prioritization of Canadian vessels and Canadian ports comes at the expense of American Lakers and American ports.”

There are plans to provide a second Mackinaw sized icebreaker for the Lakes and the Arctic Security cutters, when completed, will be able to enter the Lakes seasonally from East Coast ports. The smaller icebreaking tugs are also to be replaced.

USS LST-884 crew photo. Notice the many different uniforms, a result of the crews loss of almost everything in the fire. This picture was taken once the crew was reunited at Ulithi.

Or is it “simply forgot us?” Time to fix the broken system.

Also time to make the Coast Guard an independent agency. The eleven missions don’t really all fit in any one Department and we really don’t need a department secretary’s supervision.

Marine Link reports,

The Australian Border Force (ABF) is continuing disruption operations across northern waters, with five foreign fishing vessels intercepted and destroyed at sea since the commencement of Operation BROADSTAFF…Since January 1, the ABF has intercepted 19 foreign fishing vessels in waters off northern Queensland and the Torres Strait, nine of which have been destroyed.

I recently saw something on social media indicating the Coast Guard had a uniform shortage. Is this true? If so, why?

Hit by Ukrainian drone. The Purga icebreaking patrol vessel, which is built for the FSB Coast Guard was seriously damaged in the drone attack on March 25, 2026. Photo: Exilenova+ on Telegram

The Barents Observer reports,

A high-profile Russian security service vessel, designed for Arctic operations, has been struck by a Ukrainian drone while docked at the Vyborg shipyard near St. Petersburg.

Covert Shores goes further saying,

Mar 25: Ukrainian drones hit the Pr.23550 arctic patrol ship Purga (475) in Vyborg near St. Petersburg. Ship sunk and capsized at the quay.

In any case, it is likely the ship will be raised and returned to service.

We have previously discussed this class of ships and this ship in particular.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas, March 24, 2026 – Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) completed both the first integrated HELLFIRE missile live-fire and vertical-launch test from the company’s new containerized GRIZZLY launcher.

Below is a Lockeed Martin news release. The Grizzly launcher looks like maybe something the Coast Guard could use. It is a containerized M299 launcher. Presumably that means the container could house four missiles.

A standard 10 foot container is 10′ x 8′ x 8’6″, almost square looking at it end on. This looks a little taller. There are high cube containers that are 9’6″ tall.

Hellfire being loaded onto an M299 launcher.

While the launcher can be elevated to fire vertically or at an angle, it is probably loaded with the launcher horizontal.

An M299 launcher. While this one mounts one Hellfire it appears the M299 can mount other weapons as well.  Because they appear to be longer than the Hellfire (64″), they may be APKWS (74-75″).

Why put the M299 in a container?

The Navy is currently planning on having unmanned surface vessels, Modular Attack Surface Craft (MASC), with containerized weapons and sensors, and some reports link this to the Navy, but Army Recognition offers another explanation,

Its tactical value is tied to concealment, mobility and responsiveness. On a battlefield where traditional launchers can be identified and targeted by drones, satellites and long-range precision fires, a containerized launcher can complicate the enemy’s detection and targeting cycle by blending more easily into support and transport environments.

Logistics uses a lot of containers and one looks very much like another, so killing the important ones is difficult, while it is easy to make replicas that are indistinguishable.

The press release makes no reference to the system being developed for any particular service, rather it states.

As a highly transportable launcher, GRIZZLY is command and control and sensor agnostic, providing an affordable and easily relocatable launcher solution to support any service or mission, anywhere.

120727-N-VD564-015
PACIFIC OCEAN (July 27, 2012) Ships and submarines participating in Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise 2012 are in formation in the waters around the Hawaiian islands. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Keith Devinney/Released)

Back in February, 2025 I did a post “Selling Seapower / Failing PR” talking about the government public relations sites that I have linked in my Recommended Blogs list.

• Four Coast Guard run sites
• Joint Interagency Task Force South
• Three Combatant commander sites–for NORTHCOM, SOUTHCOM, and INDOPACOM
• Four numbered Fleet commands–5th, 4th, 3rd, and 2nd

The Coast Guard sites were:

• MyCG
• United States Coast Guard News
• Acquisitions Directorate (CG-9)
• Defense Video Information Distribution Service Coast Guard News Wire

The first three were generally very good. The fourth appeared to be underutilized. That is still the case as there has been no new material since January 15, 2026.

About a month ago I put some of these sites on an inactive list because they had not had any new material for over a month:

• US Second Fleet News last post August 10, 2025
• US Third Fleet News last post January 6, 2026
• US Naval Forces Southern Command / US Forth Fleet last post November 11, 2025
• Joint Interagency Task Force South last post November 20, 2025

I just removed Third Fleet from my inactive list because they just reported completion of the RIMPAC commanders conference, but that was only their second story this year, and more than ten weeks since the last story.

I had hoped we would see more Coast Guard stories from Joint Interagency Task Force, South (JIATF,s) and Forth Fleet. In my Feb. 2025 post I had found JIATF,S had published only seven stories in the previous year and 4th Fleet only 14, none about Coast Guard units. Now they have gone completely silent with not a single story in the last four months.

I suspect the silence may have something to do with the Operation Southern Spear, the kinetic attack on drug boats that began September 2, 2025 off Venezuela and was extended to the Eastern Pacific with the first attack in the Pacific occurring November 13. All the reporting from Operation Southern Spear is coming from SOUTHCOM.

Incidentally these attacks seem to have slowed down with only two attacks reported in the last 26 days.