Adm. Kevin Lunday, Vice Adm. Thomas Allan and Rear Adm. Douglas Schofield.

The US Naval Institute reports on likely changes in the Coast Guard’s senior leadership.

Vice Adm. Nathan Moore, Rear Adm. Jo-Ann Burdian and Rear Adm. Joseph Buzzella Jr. USNI News graphic

When I started this series about some of the weapons I thought would be most appropriate for cutters, I knew one of the choices would be a larger caliber gun equipped with air-burst munitions, but I was thinking 30mm. That is still an option, but the 50mm would be, oh, so much better for engaging every possible threat, and here we have evidence it may be much better for engaging UAS, extending the range so that it is not only capable of self-defense but can also protect other assets.

WHAT ABOUT THE 57MM? While the Webber class WPCs probably could accept a 57mm Mk110, the guns and ammunition are very expensive and the gun weighs about eight tons plus the weight of ammunition and fire control. The 50mm is probably the largest caliber that could be added without a major rebuild.

Comparison of 50mm Bushmaster III with the 30mm Bushmaster II. By comparison the 25mm’s length over all is 105.2 in (2.672 m) and its barrel length is 85.6 in (2.175 m)

The NORTHCOM online magazine, The Watch, reports,

U.S. defense firm Northrop Grumman is testing higher caliber cannon rounds to shoot down drones at a lower cost, based on feedback from Ukrainian Soldiers who are increasingly facing swarms of high-flying unmanned aircraft, a top company executive told Reuters.

What they are looking at is improving a successful system by using a large caliber gun to increase its effective range. (See the video above.)

“They love the (anti-drone) system. They want more range because they want to shoot these things down further out, which completely makes sense … So we’re taking that feedback,” …Northrop Grumman’s Bushmaster cannon uses 25 mm and 40 mm rounds and could shoot down drones up to a 3-mile distance but increasing the caliber to 50 mm would significantly broaden the range, even five-fold, O’Bryan said

It has been years since we talked about the 50mm version of the chain gun, but it really looks like a significant step up from the 25mm, and yet it is appears to be doable.

The 50mm has about twice the effective range of the 25mm. The weight of the projectile is about ten times greater. It might even be possible to make an ALaMO version of the 50mm round. It would also probably be more accurate. Certainly the kill radius when the shell bursts is much greater. Currently I don’t believe there is an airburst round for the 25mm.

These are the previous posts discussing this weapon:

• 40 and 50 mm Chain Guns, April 2019
• 50mm Chain Gun, More Detail, April 2019
• More on the New 50mm Chain Gun, and Maybe Counter-UAS, Sept. 2021

Right now the 50mm XM913 is an Army project, but it is going to be made in large numbers as it will arm the replacement for the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV). The 50mm XM913 is the latest version of the chain gun series, which includes the M242 25x137mm Bushmaster Chain Gun that is used in the Mk38 machine gun mount that arms many Coast Guard cutter. Users of the new weapon would benefit from weapon training and maintenance commonality with the M242.

We might be able to get the Navy’s attention if we prototype the first installations on the PATFORSWA WPCs.

French Soldiers board the Russian shadow fleet vessel the Boracay in September 2025. The ship has been sanctioned by the European Union and the United Kingdom, and its crew may be linked to drone incursions in Denmark. AFP/GETTY IMAGES

NORTHCOM’s online magazine, The Watch, reports,

French authorities boarded an oil tanker off the coast of France and arrested senior crew members in September 2025. The ship is suspected to be part of Russia’s illicit shadow fleet and was known to be just off the coast of Denmark when drone incursions disrupted Danish airports last month, leading to media speculation that the ship’s crew may have been involved in the incident. French President Emmanuel Macron said at a European Union summit in Copenhagen on October 1 that the ship’s crew had committed “serious wrongdoings,” prompting France to stop the vessel as it rounded the country’s northwestern coast.

Drones launched from ships offshore are a developing threat that may be used by terrorists or a near peer at the beginning of a conflict.

The Coast Guard will likely have a role in countering this threat.

Below is a news release.

Significantly this is the last of the 16 WLBs to complete a Major Maintenance Availability. Which class will be next, the WLMs?

Watch the video. Always nice to see the crew reunite with their families.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies reports on the establishment of a new Joint Task Force under the Second Marine Expeditionary Force to address the drug problem in the SOUTHCOM AOR.

We discussed formation of this new task force earlier when it was first announced but this report goes into greater depth. There really is no clarification of how this new JTF and JIATF-S will interact, though this report raises that question also.

I would like to point out that the four key objectives of the new JTF were all also activities carried out by JIATF-S:

• Identifying narcotics trafficking patterns to interdict illegal shipments of narcotics before they reach the U.S. and partner-nation territories using intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft.
• Expanding real-time intelligence fusion among U.S. military, federal law enforcement, and partner-nation agencies.
• Conducting joint training to improve interoperability among U.S. military services and increase rapid-response posture.
• Enhancing partner-nation counter narcotics operations capacity through advisory teams and combined operations.

The only real difference seems to be that the new JTF is not offering any opportunity for the boat crews to surrender. Thinking back, I can’t remember a case where smugglers exchanged gun fire with a Coast Guard boarding party, since the end of Prohibition.

The legality of the strikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs is being hotly debated and is thought by many to be the reason for the early resignation of SOUTHCOM commander Navy Admiral Alvin Holsey. Neither Admiral Holsey nor DOD has made any public statement on his reasons for stepping down.

Thanks to David for bringing this to my attention. 

This is the second in a series about some of the weapons I thought would be most appropriate for cutters, particularly the Webber class WPCs, that would allow them to respond to range of threats including:

• Unmanned aircraft, from the smallest to converted light planes
• Small, fast, highly maneuverable surface craft including personal watercraft
• Merchant ships of any size

The first was about APKWS, this one is about Hellfire and its closely related replacement JAGM.

ATLANTIC OCEAN—A Longbow Hellfire Missile is fired from Littoral Combat Ship USS Detroit (LCS 7) on Feb. 28 2017 as part of a structural test firing of the Surface to Surface Missile Module (SSMM). The test marked the first vertical missile launched from an LCS and the first launch of a missile from the SSMM from an LCS. (Photo by U.S. Navy)

There is precedence for this, in that the Navy has equipped Littoral Combat Ships with Longbow Hellfire.

Like APKWS, Hellfire has demonstrated success against UAS and small watercraft. With a 20 pound warhead, it should be more effective than APKWS against shipping, but its ability to stop larger vessels is still limited, although it might be able to target selected parts of the ship (bridge, steering gear, engine room) using semi-active laser homing.

In some ways Hellfire and APKWS are similar. In their original form both were guided to their target by a reflected laser beam. Both were developed specifically for one type of target but were found useful for a variety of targets. Both have been used to take down UAS and have had some success against lower altitude sub-sonic aircraft in the surface to air mode.

Hellfire is now more than 40 years old and has seen progressive improvements. APKWS adds a recently developed guidance section to previously unguided rockets developed during World War II. Both weapons are now being made in huge numbers.

Costs are around $30K for an APKWS, about $150K for the current Hellfire, and over $300K for a JAGM MR.

Ranges are approximately 5,000 yards for the APKWS; 8,700 yards for the current Hellfire; and 17,500 yards for the JAGM MR.

Weight varies for APKWS, but a typical weight is 32 pounds. Weight for Hellfire and JAGM is 108 pounds.

Hellfire/JAGM are bigger and more expensive so you are probably going to have fewer of them, but with the improvements (dual or triple seeker, new propellant) it will perform better, particularly in conditions of poor visibility, and will have a greater range. The latest JAGM MR has a range of 16km. It would be a significant asset even for the NSCs and OPCs, providing an upgrade in Anti-Air as well as Anti-Surface capability.

Longbow Hellfire test against small targets 12 November 2018

While the original Hellfire would be a major improvement, the JAGM MR would give us both the dual seekers of the Longbow Hellfire and greater range.

JAGM’s multi-mode seeker provides an improved Semi-Active Laser (SAL) sensor for precision-strike and a fire-and-forget Millimeter Wave (MMW) radar for moving targets in all-weather conditions. These new sensors have been integrated into the JAGM guidance section and mated with the AGM-114R missile bus and demonstrated during multiple guided flight tests.

Fire-and-forget engagement modes significantly increase JAGM user survivability against threat defenses in GPS denied and austere communications environments. JAGM can engage multiple stationary and moving targets, in the presence of adverse weather, battlefield obscurants and advanced countermeasures. Laser and radar guided engagement modes allow JAGM users to strike accurately across wide target sets and reduce collateral damage.

While we might see Hellfire/JAGM or APKWS as an either or choice, some remote weapon stations might be able to handle both.

Interim Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense (IM-SHORAD)

This type of launcher would be appropriate for the NSCs and OPCs. The possibility of vertical launch provides flexibility in location while allowing 360 degree targeting.

JAGM/Hellfire quad launcher. The launcher in the video seems to be a variation of these launchers.

USCGC Olivia Hooker is the second of three FRCs to be homeported in St. Petersburg, FL

Below is a news release from Bollinger Shipyards.

United States Exclusive Economic Zone – Pacific centered NOAA map. https://www.gc.noaa.gov/documents/2011/012711_gcil_maritime_eez_map.pdf

For some time, I have thought that Coast Guard forces are under represented in the Pacific. Pacific Area’s responsibilities have grown. Because of the great distances in the Pacific they have greater need for ships with greater endurance, but rather than gaining long range ships, they now have fewer. Pacific Area has never had even half of our larger patrol cutters, but at one time they did have ten of our 12 WHECs.

When I retired in 1991, Pacific Area had ten WHEC and five WMECs, 15 large patrol ships. Now they have six National Security Cutters and three WMECs, 9 large patrol ships. The plan was that the first four OPCs would go to Pacific Area, presumably replacing at least two of the existing WMECs, but what will happen to the OPCs contracted to Eastern is still not clear, but near term there is no chance we will see more than one, which would presumably replace one WMEC. In short there is no chance we are going to see a significant increase in the PAC AREA large cutter fleet any time soon as a result of construction.

If you look at the distribution of the US EEZ as depicted above.

• Total US EEZ: 11,351,000 km²
• East Coast EEZ: 915,763 km²
• Gulf Coast EEZ: 707,832 km²
• Puerto Rico EEZ: 177,685 km²
• Total LANT Area EEZ: 1,801,280 km² 15.9%
• Total PAC Area EEZ: 9,549,720 km²  84.1%

The US EEZ in the Pacific Area is about 5.3 times as large as the US EEZ in the Atlantic Area, but the Pacific Area has only 28% of the Coast Guard’s large patrol cutters.

PAC AREA could have more cutter time for operations in the Western Pacific and Alaskan waters, without adding cutters, if LANT AREA took full responsibility for the Eastern Pacific drug interdiction effort. There are good reasons, that might be desirable, not the least of which are that LANT has the assets, the Eastern Pacific has the heaviest drug trafficking, and while it is counter intuitive, LANT AREA assets are actually closer to the Eastern Pacific drug transit zones than PAC AREA assets. But there is also an organizational reason.

COMBATANT COMMANDS

The DOD and the Navy do not divide up the world the way the Coast Guard does, so the DOD and Navy commands charged with doing drug enforcement operations in both the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific end up talking to both PAC and LANT Areas.

US Atlantic Fleet includes all the even numbered fleets: 2nd, 4th, and 6th. The Pacific Fleet  includes all the odd numbered fleets: 3rd, 5th, and 7th.

It would simplify coordination if a single Coast Guard Command was responsible for coordinating all drug enforcement operations in 4th Fleet, and that single command should be LANT AREA. This would also ease coordination in wartime.

US Navy Fleet Organization