Are Cruise Ships Prepared for ISIS?–Jim Walker

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It has been over 30 years since the seizure of the Achille Lauro by Palestinian Terrorists. Are cruise ships better protected? You would like to think so, and it is certainly possible steps have been taken that are not obvious, but there are doubts. CuiseLawNews discusses the question.

This in particular caught my eye.

“Just last month, the Miami-Dade County Police Department said: ‘We ended up concluding that now they’re targeting the cruise industry. We’re the cruise capital of the world. It’s the same possibility of having two planes crash into the World Trade Center.'”

From an earlier post that discussed the implications of various threats on the choice of homeports for major cutters, “Ruminating on Homeports While Playing the Red Cell,” the Top Cruise Ship Ports are:

  1. Miami, FL
  2. Fort Lauderdale, FL
  3. Port Canaveral, FL
  4. New York, NY
  5. San Juan, PR
  6. Galveston, TX
  7. Tampa, FL
  8. Seattle, WA
  9. Long Beach, CA
  10. New Orleans, LA
  11. Los Angeles, CA
  12. Baltimore, MD
  13. Cape Liberty, NJ
  14. Jacksonville, FL
  15. Charleston, SC

UAV for WPC Sized Vessels

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Photo: Information systems technicians conduct pre-flight checks on a Puma unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) aboard the coastal patrol ship USS Monsoon (PC 4). Photo: US Navy

NavalToday reports, the Navy has been testing a UAV, RQ-20A Puma AE (all environment), on the USS Monsoon, a patrol craft of the same size as the Coast Guard’s Webber class WPCs.

“Weighing approximately 14 pounds, the small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can provide more than three hours of flight time with a range of 15 kilometers and operating altitude of 500 feet. Equipped with an electro-optical and an infrared camera, the Puma can be manually operated or by GPS.”

“… Puma is most commonly employed as a precursor search and overwatch platform to support her VBSS team…”

 

 

Israel Sees “Narco-Subs” as Threat

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New Type Narco Sub--a "Snot Boat?"

DefenseNews is reporting the Israeli Navy is taking seriously the potential use of the same types of smuggling craft the Coast Guard has been dealing with to “transport more than just narcotics, [but] the movement of cash, weapons, violent extremists or, at the darkest of the spectrum, weapons of mass destruction.”

Among the defensive measures they are taking is the use of unmanned surface vessels.

Navy Adopts Willard Design for 11 Meter RHIB

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WillardMarine11meter

MarineLog is reporting the Navy has licensed a Willard Marine design to serve as their standard 11 meter RHIB.

These are similar in size to the Long Range Interceptor (LRI-II) boat that deploy from the stern ramp on the Bertholf Class NSCs, but they lack the weather protection of the Coast Guard boats.

160730-N-KM939-031 PACIFIC OCEAN (July 30, 2016) - Coast Guardsmen, assigned to U.S. Coast Guard cutter Stratton (WMSL 752), make their way to the guided-missile destroyer USS Stockdale (DDG 106) for a rescue and assistance exercise during Rim of the Pacific 2016. Twenty-six nations, 40 ships and submarines, more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC from June 30 to Aug. 4, in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. The world's largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity that helps participants foster and sustain the cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world's oceans. RIMPAC 2016 is the 25th exercise in the series that began in 1971. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class David A. Cox)

160730-N-KM939-031 PACIFIC OCEAN (July 30, 2016) – Coast Guardsmen, assigned to U.S. Coast Guard cutter Stratton (WMSL 752), make their way to the guided-missile destroyer USS Stockdale (DDG 106) for a rescue and assistance exercise during Rim of the Pacific 2016. Twenty-six nations, 40 ships and submarines, more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC from June 30 to Aug. 4, in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. The world’s largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity that helps participants foster and sustain the cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world’s oceans. RIMPAC 2016 is the 25th exercise in the series that began in 1971. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class David A. Cox)

 

China to Build Nuclear Icebreaker, Ready in 2018

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512px-Antarctica_CIA_svg

Maritime Executive is reporting China will build a nuclear powered Polar Icebreaker.

“The vessel will feature higher ice capabilities, better research capabilities and be more comfortable and environmentally friendly than Xue Long. It is expected to be 122.5 meters (400 feet) long and will be able to break ice of up to 1.5 meters (five feet) thick at a speed of around two knots. It will be able to operate bow or stern first using two ABB Azipod units with combined power of 15MW.”

This is what the Coast Guard would call at best a medium icebreaker. 15MW or about 20,000 HP is far less than even the Healy’s 22.4 MW, but while we don’t expect a new icebreaker for a decade, they expect theirs will be finished in two years.

How Much Would it Cost to Add ESSM to NSC?

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The US Naval Institute reports the Chilean Navy is planning to upgrade three of their British Built Frigates, with Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) replacing their existing Sea Wolf weapon systems. Since ESSM was planned as a possible upgrade for the National Security Cutter, I thought the information might be of interest.

The US is providing the equipment under a Foreign Military Sales contract valued at $140.1M that will include three sets of Tactical Length Mk41 VLS (vertical launch systems), 33 Evolved Seasparrow Missiles (ESSMs) Six Evolved Seasparrow Telemetry Missiles, “Ten (10) MK25 Quad Pack Canisters; Five (5) ESSM Shipping Containers; Five (5) MK-73 Continuous Wave Illumination Transmitters, One (1) Inertial Missile Initializer Power Supply (IMIPS); spare and repair parts, support and test equipment, publications and technical documentation, personnel training, U.S. Government and contractor engineering, technical and logistics support services, technical assistance, installation and integration oversight support, logistics, program management, packaging and transportation.”

These figures include only the additional equipment. They do not include the yard work necessary to prepare the ship for installation and the installation of the equipment. Still I think this constitutes most of the cost of the upgrade of the three ships.

I would note that it is not clear how many VLS cells will be installed on each ship, but they are always installed in groups of eight. If we assumed eight cells on each ship, then each ship could theoretically support 32 missiles since they can be “quad packed,” that is four missiles can be placed in each cell. Chile is buying only 33 “war-shot” missiles and ten quad pack canisters. That is barely more than enough to fully arm one ship with eight cells, so it appears there will be some cells either left empty or filled with other types of weapons, which might include ASROC which also fit the tactical length Mk41 VLS.

Chile Christens Its Forth 80 meter OPV

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On of our most popular posts has been “Three Nations Share German OPV Design” written by Andrés Tavolari, a lawyer, and Chilean Marine Reserve Officer. Andrés has written to say that Chile will christen their fourth Fassmer 80 class, OPV 84, “Cabo Odger” on August 3rd. Above is a Time Lapse of her construction.

As you can see from the diagram, this one will have a 76 mm gun.

USNI News Video: U.S. Coast Guard and the Drug War

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The US Naval Institute News Service has produced a short video on the drug war featuring the Stratton and her CO.

The video shows huge quantities of Cocaine on the flight deck of presumably Stratton. A viewer might assume the entire quantity was taken when Stratton successfully interdicted a self propelled semi-submersible with 7,000 kilos. Actually the deck cargo seen in the film is 30,000 kilos with includes not only Stratton’s haul but that of several other seizures.. These included other Coast Guard seizures and operations by other US agencies and international allies.