The globalpost.com has reported the identity of the various search units looking for Malaysia Flight MH370. You can find it here.
Units Searching for Flight MH370
Reply
Navy Department Budget, a Comparison
Here is an overview of the Navy Department’s FY2015 budget request: http://www.finance.hq.navy.mil/FMB/15pres/DON_PB15_Press_Brief.pdf A much shorter summary of the Coast Guard’s FY2015 budget proposal can be found here: http://www.fiercehomelandsecurity.com/story/papp-budget-falloff-results-smaller-coast-guard/2014-03-12
The Navy Department’s FY2015 budget authorizes 698,259 positions (323,600 Navy, 182,700 Marines, and 191,959 civilians). The Navy’s budget is down, but it is still $148B. Its equivalent of the Coast Guard’s AC&I budget (Procurement plus Infrastructure) is $39.9B.
By comparison the Coast Guard budget request includes 49,093 positions, a total budget of $9.8B, and $1.08B for AC&I.
–
In terms of personnel the Coast Guard is roughly 7% or one fourteenth the size of the Navy Department (and about one eighth the size of the Navy itself). If its budget were proportional, the Coast Guard would have an AC&I budget of $2.81B and a total budget of $10.41B.
–
There is not much difference in the per capita budget overall, but the difference in investment is huge. An equivalent AC&I budget would be 160% greater than the current request. (The difference in the R&D budgets are even more significant.)
–
As similar organizations, I think this is a clear justification, of the Commandant’s assertion, that the Coast Guard really needs an AC&I budget of $2.5B to get healthy. If anything, after years of underfunding, it needs more.
New Budget Process
Fiercehomelandsecurity is reporting that the Department (DHS) is initiating a new budget process, that would make it more top down.
DHS is building a process where it will define its mission and objectives, then determine what resources it needs and look across components to avoid overlaps and inefficiencies.
“My impression is that the DHS budget process is too stovepiped,” Johnson told the House Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security, during a March 11 hearing.
Johnson, a former general counsel for the Defense Department who took over at DHS in December, said he used the DoD budget process as a model.
Perhaps this is what is needed to make the Department a bit more coherent in its approach to its missions. Perhaps it would be too much to hope for, but perhaps the Department will see that Customs’ Aviation and Marine units largely unnecessarily duplicate Coast Guard assets.
I don’t have any problem with the Department defining mission and objectives or eliminating overlaps and inefficiencies. I do think they might be out of their depth in determining what resources it needs.
The new Secretary comes from the DOD and looks to their process as a model, but DOD is not necessarily the most efficient of organizations. DOD staff over and above the armed services themselves, is grossly inflated and part of the reason is that there is a lot of second guessing of the services expertise by an ever growing civilian bureaucracy, a model DHS cannot afford to duplicate.
Non-Lethal Boat Stopper
Navy recognition has an interesting note here about a device the CG might want in its kit, assuming it works:
Bird’s Eye View for Ships
Photo: Valkyrie Virtual Mast System model Kelsey D. Atherton
ThinkDefence reports L3 is resurrecting an old idea to extend the horizon distance for surface vessels. Their “virtual mast” puts sensors at high altitude without the need for a helicopter or UAV. Popular Science has a bit more detail, reporting that the proposed system could fly as high 5,000 feet. Sensors at that altitude would have a radar and visual horizon of 76 nautical miles.
Not sure how they would warn off air traffic that might otherwise hit the cable or the autogyro.
Historical Note: During WWII German U-boats used a similar unpowered tethered autogyro to take a lookout aloft, but their altitude was much more limited.
Intercept at Sea, Israeli Style
I’ve seem several reports of the Israeli seizure of a Panamanian flag vessel, the KLOS-C, reportedly transporting long range rockets and perhaps other weapons being shipped by Iran to terrorists in Gaza. But NavyRecognition’s is the first report I’ve seen that actually showed the seizure. They also the show the reported route of the weapons.
The intercept point looks to be a bit over 700 miles from the nearest Israeli port. Apparently the crew of the Panamanian ship is claiming they had no idea what they were carrying.
It is interesting to see the forces the Israeli Navy used to make this seizure. They did not scrimp. They apparently made the boarding using three RHIBs and they had at least two surface combatants on scene, a Sa’ar 5 corvette (1,275 tons full load, larger than a 210, but smaller than a 270) and a missile boat, which appears to be a Sa’ar 4.5 (488 tons full load, about a third larger than an FRC). From the video it is obvious they had an aircraft on scene, possibly a helicopter from the Sa’ar 5. It may have been overkill in this case but both of the two Israeli vessels carried anti-ship missiles and a CIWS. The Sa’ar 5 corvette is also equipped with short range AAW missiles, and the missile boat has a 76 mm.
Photo: Israeli Sa’ar 5 corvettes. Israeli Defense Forces photo
Photo: Sa’ar 4.5 missile boat, Israeli Defense Force photo
State of the Coast Guard Address
I’m afraid I’m a bit late with this, but if you have not seen or heard Admiral Papp’s State of the Coast Guard Speech you can read it here.
Actually it is a good speech, and it cites several indicators that the Acquisitions Directorate has gotten its act together. Lots of other issues addressed as well.
FY2015 Budget Request Published
The Administrations FY2015 Budget Request for DHS is out.
You can find it here:
http://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/FY15-BIB.pdf
The Coast Guard’s portion (12 pages) begins on page 75 of the document which for me came up as page 82 of the pdf. I am still trying to digest it.
How to Create Enemies and Make People Hate You–China vs Indonesia
We have already talked about China’s difficulties with her neighbors Japan and the Philippines. Now we have a report of a confrontation with Indonesia. Apparently Indonesia had chosen to keep this quiet, but the Chinese have chosen to brag about it.
The Indonesian vessel involved was reportedly a Todak class, which is a German Lurssen “PB-57” design, a bit larger than the FRC at 447 tons fl, 58.1 meters long and 7.6 meters of beam, armed with a Bofors 57mm (like that on the NSC), a 40mm and two 20mm. Clearly if it had come to a fight, the Indonesian vessel would have enjoyed an advantage, at least until Chinese reinforcements arrived.
China is showing a complete disregard for the provisions of the UNCLOS treaty to which they are a party.
Making an enemy of Indonesia is a particularly bad idea for China, in that Indonesia potentially controls all the major straits through which the vast majority of Chinese trade must pass and all the alternatives are also in the hands of nations China seems intent on alienating.
Could This be Bollinger’s OPC Candidate?
Navy Recognition is showing a photo of a model of a new corvette being built by Bollinger’s partner Damen for the Vietnamese Navy. The ships is the right size, 98 meters long and 14 meters of beam (321 ft x 46 ft).
We already discussed the fact that Damen had built an OPC sized ship for the Vietnamese counterpart of the USCG.
The photo even looks a little like the ships in this earlier illustration from Bollinger. The reported dimensions of the new Vietnamese vessel also correspond to the dimensions given for Damen’s 2600 ton OPV.
An interesting feature is how well armed this Vietnamese Corvette will apparently be. This bodes well for potential upgrades to the OPC. Quoting Navy Recognition:
the new SIGMA 9814 class will be fitted with:
8x MBDA Exocet MM40 Block 3
12x MBDA MICA VL surface-to-air missiles (in VLS)
1x Oto Melara 76mm main gun
2x Oto Melara MARLIN-WS 30mm gun mounts
The corvette will acomodate one anti-submarine helicopters Ka-28. The corvettes are set to receive the latest generation of electronics and sensors from Thales including TACTICOS combat management system,SMART-S Mk 2 radar and STING EO Mk 2 electro-optical fire control system.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 