PHOTO BY PA1 KURT FREDRICKSON

The US Naval Institute Blog has a post by a Seaman LaVigne USCG suggesting steps to improve the fitness of Aviation Survival Technician candidates.

Perhaps some of the information he suggests for this very limited population might also help other coasties achieve an maintain better fitness.

Just passing this along for anyone who might be interested. 

Another UAV has entered the market. (more here) This system is likely to serve on the numerous French OPVs being built that have aviation facilities designed to support UAVs rather than helicopters like the POM, though the indication was that their UAV would be in the 700 KG class. 

It appears to be very direct competition for the very successful Schiebel Camcopter S-100, being very close in specifications.

The Coast Guard Cutter Bluebell sits moored on the Willamette River waterfront in Portland, Ore., June 4, 2015. The Bluebell, which celebrated her 70th anniversary this year, is one of many ships participating in the 100th year of the Portland Rose Festival. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Chief Petty Officer David Mosley.)

The Congressional Research Service has issued a two page look at the Coast Guard’s Waterways Commerce Cutter (WCC) program.

The program is expected to replace 35 small tenders, including 18 WLRs, 13, WLICs, and four WLIs, with the first vessel completed in 2025 and all delivered by 2030.

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.