Representative Duncan Duane Hunter, Official Portrait

Defense News reports, 

The Tuesday indictment of Rep. Duncan Hunter on corruption charges could have an impact on a number of defense-related pet projects for the Republican lawmaker, including the potential sale of military drones to Jordan.

The indictment charges that Hunter and his wife, Margaret, who served as a campaign consultant, stole more than $250,000 in campaign funds to pay for overseas vacations, bar tabs, dental work and other personal purchases, despite objections from staff.

Hunter, a 41-year-old California Republican, has repeatedly denied the charges, and indicated Wednesday he intends to continue to run for re-election in November.

But following his indictment, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., announced that Hunter’s committee assignments would be revoked while the criminal case is pending (emphasis applied, Chuck) — including his seat on the House Armed Services Committee.

I hate to see this happen. As chair of the House Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee, Representative Hunter has been a strong advocate for the Coast Guard. With funding for the Icebreaker in the balance it is a bad time to weaken a strong pro-Coast Guard voice. 

The Acquisitions Directorate (CG-9) is reporting a major milestone in improved Maritime Domain Awareness. Here is their press release quoted in full. 

The Coast Guard’s Nationwide Automatic Identification System (NAIS) achieved full operational capacity (FOC) on May 24, 2018.

Jewuan Davis, program manager for the NAIS program (CG-9332), explained that FOC was achieved when the capability had been “deployed and accepted at the 58 critical ports and 11 waterways identified in the NAIS Operational Requirements document.” Currently, permanent transceiver systems are deployed and fully operational at 134 total regional sites, providing operational coverage of the 58 critical ports and 11 waterways. On a daily basis, NAIS receives an average of over 264 million vessel messages and provides data feeds to over 80 Coast Guard and other government agency systems worldwide.

The milestone was recognized during a ceremony at Coast Guard Headquarters on July 26, 2018. In attendance were Rear Adm. Michael Ryan (CG-7), Rear Adm. Michael Johnston (CG-93) and Rear Adm. Michael Haycock (CG-9). During the ceremony, the flag officers shared real stories of how NAIS was used to enhance maritime domain awareness (MDA) across the Coast Guard.

The NAIS acquisition stemmed from the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 which directed requirements to establish a system of effective maritime domain awareness and security for every port act of 2006. MDA is defined as the effective understanding of anything associated with the maritime domain that could impact the security, safety, economy or environment. “The Coast Guard is the lead federal agency for maritime security, maritime safety, maritime mobility, national defense in U.S. coastal waters and protection of natural resources in U.S. coastal waters,” said Davis, “NAIS is critical to the Coast Guard’s ability to fulfill its responsibilities in those areas.”

NAIS enables the Coast Guard to maintain MDA by providing a comprehensive view of the nation’s waters. As a result, decision makers are better positioned to respond to safety and security risks; improve the safety of vessels and ports through collision avoidance; and strengthen national security through the detection, identification, and classification of potential threats from offshore.

The NAIS program started in 2004. Reflecting on the process 14 years later, Davis said, “A lot of detailed planning, interagency coordination, and hard work was invested into the successful completion of this milestone and full delivery of this capability to the Coast Guard’s operational users.” There are many contributors to thank for the success including the entire NAIS Program Management Office team and previous program managers and team members who put hard work and diligence into the early stages of developing NAIS. Davis extends a special thanks to the Office of Command, Control, Communications, Computer and Sensors Capabilities (CG-761); Sustainment Manager (CG-681); NAIS product line team at Command, Control, and Communications Engineering Center and all operational users for “helping us continually improve and refine the tool into the critical asset it is today.”

The next major milestone for the NAIS acquisition program will be the completion of acquisition decision event 4, acquisition gate review and transition of management responsibility for NAIS from acquisitions to the sustainment community, scheduled to occur in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2018. After that point, the sustainment community will assume responsibility for the continued maintenance of NAIS and managing technical refreshes of the capability to keep the system up to date.

For more information: Nationwide Automatic Identification System program page   

I  am quoting here some information received via email from the Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN) regarding legislation signed into law on August 13, 2018 as part of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2019.  Changes include:

• Adding a new punitive article dealing with domestic violence to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).
• Requiring a report of the feasibility of extending Special Victim Counsel availability to victims of domestic violence.
• Establishing a uniform Command Action Form for reporting the final disposition of sexual assault offenses when the perpetrator is subject to the UCMJ and the victim has filed an unrestricted report.
• Standardizing of policies across the Services related to expedited transfer in cases of sexual assault or domestic violence.
• Requiring the development of a plan for implementation of oversight of DoD’s Sexual Harassment Prevention and Response policy.
• Requiring oversight of the Registered Sexual Offenders’ Management Plan.
• Requiring the DoD and the Department of Labor’s Veterans Employment and Training Service to update the Transition Assistance Program (TAP) to establish new pathways for more individualized counseling.  Also, all those departing the military will receive information on resources available to them in the local community where they have chosen to reside to include resources for those suffering from Military Sexual Trauma (MST).

USCGC Rollin A. Fritch (WPC-1119)

August has brought the US Naval Institutes annual “Coast Guard Issue” of their magazine, Proceedings, which is mostly not about the Coast Guard. Never the less there are Coast Guard related articles included and there is one on this side of the pay wall that really deserves the service’s attention, “Ready, Responsive, Relevant?” It looks at the Coast Guard’s Public Affairs program. Its written by Lieutenant Commander Krystyn Pecora, USCG, XO on Seneca (WMEC-906), an Academy graduate and permanent cutterman, a former external affairs officer for District Five with a master’s degree in media and communications studies.

She needs to be listened to, because as she points out, the Budget is linked to Public Perception of Value. 

She found that the program lacked focus, leadership, and resources.

Considering “focus”:

In her examination of focus, she refers to a 2001 USNI article, “Branding the Coast Guard” also worth a read. It points out.

“Never has a governmental agency been such a success and failure at the same time. The Coast Guard is lauded daily in the nation’s press for spectacular operational successes, yet is chronically unable to obtain an adequate budget from the nation it serves. This dichotomy was illustrated quite graphically in March 2000 when the Coast Guard won the accolades of Government Executive magazine for being the nation’s most efficient and best run federal agency but was ridiculed in the same article for its naiveté and repeated failures in the budget process. “

His solution:

“The Coast Guard’s travails will never be addressed adequately until it abandons the myth that it is a single, monolithic organization and accepts the reality that it is a “holding company” for a number individual, mutually supporting, maritime service organizations. It also must focus on the individual services, not the holding company, in the competition for federal dollars and support.”

In a modern interpretation of the argument LCdr Pecora suggests, 

if 11 strategic teams were developed, each devoted to defining and promoting one of the Coast Guard’s missions. All 11 missions have millions of constituents interested in the specific services the Coast Guard provides. For example, northern constituents care more about domestic icebreaking capabilities compared to constituents in warmer climates. Realistically, the Coast Guard cannot use the same communications playbook for each of these constituent groups. Strategic teams translating national intent to regional audiences through the district external affairs offices would ensure each mission receives ongoing attention to daily operations, akin to the U.S. Navy’s type commander construct.

This dedicated effort would be a far cry from today’s whack-a-mole operations in which the service focuses its efforts on the mission currently most in need of acquisition funding. Instead of having missions fighting for pieces of the funding pie, the Coast Guard could grow support for funding all constituent interests concurrently. In addition, this construct takes advantage of the current information environment, in which audiences select news sources that resonate with their personal interests rather than relying on traditional media outlets. It would not matter which brand image is imagined when asked to envision a Coast Guardsman; that brand image would have been a result of calculated microtargeting based on a person’s region and interests.

Considering Leadership:

Compared to the professionalism of DOD public affairs.

“The experience disparity for the Coast Guard is substantial; this is the second public affairs–related tour for its current Chief of Public Affairs. His predecessor served his first public affairs tour in this leadership position. This lack of experience is a service-wide failure. The Coast Guard would not place a novice in charge of any operational program but consistently accepts this scenario for its communications program. “

Considering Lack of resources: 

There is much more in the article, but a single paragraph,

“On average, there is one enlisted public affairs watchstander representing 22 Coast Guard units of varying size, in geographically diverse locations, often across multiple states, with varied missions. The folly of the current footprint was identified by the service’s own reports in the aftermath of both the Cosco Busan (2007) and Deepwater Horizon (2010) oil spills. These reports called for the public affairs program to be increased in size to decrease public affairs response times to sustain messaging during long-term events. ¹¹ For context, the public affairs response to the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season consisted of half the rate, leaving skeleton crews across the nation to cover daily operations. The program simply cannot handle two national-level events at the same time. “

Please read the entire article, there is much, much more. 

Navy photo

National Defense Magazine has a post looking at two “big Bets” by R&D labs, and the first of these is the Coast Guard R&D Center’s examination of unmanned systems.

The second half of the article is about the Office of Naval Research’s interest in high energy lasers.