I am passing this along from the MyCG web site. 

Coast Guard Foundation’s Tribute to the United States Coast Guard from Our Nation’s Capital

Oct. 27, 2020 —

Sometimes you need to back away from the details to take a look at the larger picture. Sept. 17, the Commandant released the “Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing Strategic Outlook”. There have been a number of reports that indicate the Coast Guard is taking this seriously and in fact started working the plan even before it was published.

On Sept. 3 we had a report of USCGC Bertolf’s joint patrol with the Ecuadorian navy off Galapagos Islands, August 25-29.

Sept. 22 we had a report that USCGC Waesche had had a fire on Sept. 20, while on deployment to the Western Pacific .

Sept. 23, we got this report of cooperative fisheries enforcement with the Royal Bahamian Defence Forces, Coast Guard, RBDF seize more than 12,000 lbs. of illegal catch off Bahamas

Oct.7 we got a report that USCGC Douglas Munro had just completed a two month patrol in the North Pacific, not an ALPAT, Operation North Pacific Guard 2020.

Oct. 8 we got this report indicating that the Coast Guard would continue to do capacity building in Africa. Navy, Coast Guard Keep Up Operations in Africa.

And most recently, Oct. 24, we learned that not only would we be “strategically homeporting significantly enhanced Fast Response Cutters … in the western Pacific,” but that basing cutters in America Samoa is being considered. “US to base Coast Guard ships in western Pacific to tackle China”

Taken together, these seem to indicate that the Coast Guard is taking on Illegal, Unregulated, and Unreported (IUU) fishing, particularly Chinese IUU fishing, which is the most egregious, not only in the US EEZ, but also internationally in a cooperative manner.

The line from Jaws comes to mind, I think we are going to need a bigger Coast Guard.

CNN reports,

“British armed forces forcibly boarded and regained control of an oil tanker in the English Channel on Sunday evening following reports of a suspected hijacking, according to the UK defense ministry.”

As we learn more I will add in comments.

U.S. Coast Guard Ensign Morgan Garrett, 24 years old, from Weddington, N.C., died in an Oct. 23, 2020, crash of a Navy T-6B Texan II trainer aircraft in Foley, Ala. US Navy photo.

US Naval Institute News services has identified the two killed in the crash of a U.S. Navy T-6B Texan II training aircraft. They were U.S. Navy Lt. Rhiannon Ross, a 30-year-old instructor pilot, and U.S. Coast Guard Ensign Morgan Garrett, a 24-year-old student pilot.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

From Naval News

Naval News provides additional information on the “Patrouilleurs Océanique” (PO) program to build ten offshore patrol vessels for one billion Euros. We discussed this program earlier and it looks very much like a Coast Guard cutter, maybe even a candidate for Cutter X.

The things that might be seen as unique or unexpected:

• hull mounted sonar
• 40 mm 
• Modular capacity in the form of space for a standard container sized system–this might include a towed array
• Retention room–presumably a holding cell that might be used for alien migrant interdiction

Deliveries are expected 2025-2029.

After posting information about the “Defense Primer: Naval Forces” I learned that there are a long series of Defense Primers. It looks like there are 121. Apparently all are only two pages. The format severely limits the content.

Looks like an excellent source of short highly focused short explanations.

US Capital West Side, by Martin Falbisoner

The Congressional Research Service has produced a very short over view of US Navy forces, it discusses the nature of both the Navy and Marine Corps as naval services, the aircraft that make up carrier air wings, naval nuclear weapons, and the Navy’s domestic and overseas home ports. Discussion of Navy and Marine aircraft is limited (covered here). There is no mention of the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard’s relationship with the Navy is covered here. Those interested in the USMC are directed to a different primer.

Its only two pages if you ignore the disclaimer, all pretty basic, but a good starting point if you have little prior knowledge of the way the Navy is organized. This is probably intended for the freshmen Congressmen expected in January.

Revision: Since this post was originally published, I have learned more about this particular form of briefing material. This lead to some changes above and a second post.

Janes reports that “The Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) has begun an initial process to evaluate possible vessel types for its second Littoral Mission Ship (LMS) project.”

Reportedly,

“The four proposals are namely a 70.7 m patrol boat concept from US shipbuilder Swiftships, a 68 m offshore patrol vessel (OPV) concept from Damen known as the Stan Patrol 6811, a 70.2 m patrol vessel from German shipbuilder Fassmer, and a 70 m patrol boat from Malaysian company Preston.

“Meanwhile, the proposal that has been forwarded by the joint venture between Damen and Destini is an 83 m vessel that is very similar to the OPV ordered for the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA)..”

The real surprise here is that they are not continuing to build additional units of the Chinese built batch 1 ships. (More recent photos here, including the two stern launch boat slips. Text is apparently in Indonesia, but there was an option for translation that worked reasonably well.)

“The RMN has awarded a contract to China Shipbuilder & Offshore International Co. Ltd. to build the first batch of four (4) Littoral Mission Ship based on a 68-metere design. The first ship, the KD Keris (111), was commissioned with the RMN on January 2020, while the second ship, Sundang (112) was launched in China on July 2019….Under its 15-to-5 Transformation Program, the RMN plans to have 18 Littoral Mission Ship, although the decision to look for a new design for the second batch of LMS means the RMN itself is diverting from its original plan to only have 5 classes of ships in its inventory. (emphasis applied–Chuck)

The Chinese built ships are reportedly,

“…68.8 meters long, with a beam of 9 meters and draft of 2.8 meters. It displaces at 700 tons full load, and with a maximum speed of 22 knots and range of 2,000 nautical miles at 15 knots.”

I have only really been able to pin down one of the proposed designs, That of the 83 meter Damen design (photo below) currently being built for the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (Coast Guard).

Front view of a scale model of an OPV-1800 vessel made by the Dutch company Damen. Photo taken during the 2018 Asian Defence and Security (ADAS) Trade Show at the World Trade Center in Pasay, Metro Manila. Photo by Rhk111 from Wikipedia

The Fassmer website talks about the 80 meter OPV we are familiar with, but there is no mention of a 70 meter design. Swiftships offers a 75 meter corvette, but no 70.7-meter design. Reportedly the Damen offer is a 68 meter stretched version of their 6211 design. It may be that they are referring to waterline length rather than overall.

There is not a lot of information about proposed capabilities. Sounds like they may have decided they need a flight deck for a helo or at least a UAV.

Three of six saildrones getting ready for deployment from Dutch Harbor, AK, on the 2019 Arctic mission. Photo Credit: Saildrone, Inc.

Since the Coast Guard is currently testing the “Saildrone,” thought the experience reported by NOAA on this 6,000 mile mission was very interesting.

Autonomous vessel operations in the Arctic: Lessons learned from the Summer 2020 Mapping Mission

Navigation tracks of all four saildrones during the nearly two-month deployment as part of the North Slope Arctic mapping mission. Credit: TerraSond.

Thanks to Mike B for the link. 

Photo: Coast Guard 33 foot Special Purpose craft like the one involved

We will probably hear more about this

News Release U.S. Coast Guard 7th District Southeast Contact: 7th District Public Affairs Office: 305-415-6683 After Hours: 786-367-7649 7th District online newsroom Coast Guard, pleasure craft collide near Manatee Pocket MIAMI — A Coast Guard Station Fort Pierce 33-foot Special Purpose Craft—Law Enforcement boat crew and a 23-foot pleasure craft with five people aboard were involved in a collision Saturday near Manatee Pocket.  The people aboard the pleasure craft were embarked by the Coast Guard boat crew onto the Station Fort Pierce small boat and taken to Sandsprit Park. One person from the pleasure craft was reported to be injured and was transported to Martin County Memorial Hospital for treatment. No other injuries were reported.  As a result of the collision, the pleasure craft began taking on water and became submerged in the channel. The Martin County Sheriff’s Office is working with commercial salvage providers to remove the pleasure craft from the water. The Coast Guard is working with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident.