Icebreaker Fleets of the World

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Chuck Hill

The US Naval Institute News has published a chart, prepared by the USCG, listing their best estimate of the world icebreaker fleets. Ships are listed by country, horsepower class, and year the ship entered service. Ships under construction or planned are also listed.

Only ships of more than 10,000 Brake Horse Power (7,457 MW), capable of independent Arctic operation, are included. There are notations to indicate nuclear propulsion, whether the ship has made it to the North Pole, whether it is government owned, and if the ship is designed specifically for the Baltic.

Snippets from the News

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Chuck Hill

A couple of items that might be of interest.

If there was any doubt about the viciousness of the drug wars in Mexico, this ought to clarify things: Recently a Mexican Navy Vice Admiral was ambushed and murdered.

The Italian Coast Guard launches the first of two new ships. Relatively large at 310 feet long and 3,600 tons full load, but not nearly as capable as the projected Offshore Patrol Cutter, to me this looks like an adaptation of an oil industry Offshore Support Vessel. Most interesting feature is electric propulsion. Raytheon’s integrated bridge system might also be interesting, but there are no details in the story. Reasonable question is, can they can function effectively with a crew of only 38 or do they need additional augmentation for each mission. Apparently they can routinely berth up to 60 in addition to the crew, and up to 600 additional in case of an emergency. This last is a reflection of Italy’s Alien Migrant Interdiction problem.

Well Blowout Gulf of Mexico

Posted on July 24, 2013 by Chuck Hill

There has been another well blow out and fire in the Gulf of Mexico. Unlike Deepwater Horizon there were apparently no personnel casualties and this is in relatively shallow water (154 feet) 55 miles off Louisiana. Report here from gCaptain.

S. Korea Transfers Ship to Colombia for Drug Enforcement

Posted on July 24, 2013 by Chuck Hill

MarineForum, 23 July, is reporting

“The Colombian navy will be given a decommissioned (in service 1983, out of service 2011) South Korean corvette …for anti-drug operations … part of South Korean plans to boost arms exports to Latin America) (rmks: dates given seem to indicate DONG HAE class 755 AN YANG)

Coast Guard units may have an opportunity to work with this vessel. Here are the specs for the ship found in Wikipedia. No helicopter deck, but perhaps that might be changed, otherwise looks like a good addition for drug enforcement.

Displacement:	1,076 tonnes (1,059 long tons; 1,186 short tons)
Length:	78.1 m (256 ft 3 in)
Beam:	9.6 m (31 ft 6 in)
Draft:	2.6 m (8 ft 6 in)
Propulsion:	CODOG unit
Speed:	Maximum: 31 knots (57 km/h) Cruising: 15 knots (28 km/h)
Range:	4,000 nautical miles (7,400 km)
Crew:	95
Sensors and processing systems:	EDO 786 hull mounted sonar
Armament:	• 1 × OTO Melara 76 mm/62 compact cannon • 2× Emerson 30mm twin guns • 1× Bofors 40mm/56 twin guns • 2× Mark 32 triple torpedo tubes (with 6× Mark 46 torpedoes) • 12× Mark 9 depth charges

Proposed New Maritime Patrol Aircraft for Canada

Posted on July 23, 2013 by Chuck Hill

The Canadian American Strategic Review has information on a proposed new maritime Patrol Aircraft that would use components of the US Navy’s P-8 including its radar in a Canadian build Challenger 605 bizjet airframe.

Canada Refuses to Accept Maritime Helicopters from Sikorsky

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Chuck Hill

The Coast Guard has had its share of acquisition problems, but it seems the Canadians may be having more than their fair share (submarines, replenishment vessels, shipbuilding programs in general). They have been attempting to replace their Seaqking ASW helicopter and selected Sikorsky–usually a safe choice. Instead of a smooth transition, they have had repeated delays and disappointments. DefenseNews reports on the latest chapter.

These are admittedly more complex than SAR helos, but note that the Seakings they are replacing are the same generation as the HH-3Fs the Coast Guard replaced decades ago.

NAVAIR and CG Work ISR Interoperability

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Chuck Hill

Defense Industry Daily provided the video above with the encouraging news that NAVAIR and the Coast Guard are working together to develop an open architecture system that will permit real time data link of “video and metadata” including the ability of, what I believe is a Response Boat, Medium, to take control of the camera on the airborne Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) asset.

Panamanians Seize N. Korean ship with Hidden Cargo

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Chuck Hill

CNN reports there is a bit of a drama going on in Panama as the authorities there seized a N. Korean vessel attempting to transit the canal with undeclared weapon systems components, believed to part of an air to surface missile system. They are still unloading the ship and more may be found. Apparently the crew of the ship attempted to resist the boarding.

New Canadian Motor Lifeboat

Posted on July 13, 2013 by Chuck Hill

gCaptain reports Canada is planning on acquiring some new self-righting motor surf boats (gCaptain has photos). These boats will be a good deal larger than our 47 footers, they are touted as having longer range. The 47 footer does still appear to have an advantage in the number of survivors it can take on board. Canada has bought 47 footers, perhaps if we have need for a larger MLB with longer range, say in Hawaii or Alaska, maybe these are worth a look.

The vessel’s particulars are as follows (as provided by gCaptain’s story, I did the conversion to English units):

Length overall – 19.0 metres (63.2 ft)
Length DWL – 17.5 metres (57.4 ft)
Beam, moulded – 6.3 metres (20.7ft)
Depth, moulded, at midship – 2.58 metres (8.5 ft)
Hull draft, nominal – 1.67 metres (5.5 ft)
Power – 2,400 kW (3,217 HP)
Speed – 23.5 kts

These are the specs for the 47 foot MLB as found in Wikipedia.

Length:	14.6 m (47 ft 11 in)
Beam:	4.27 m (14 ft 0 in)
Draught:	1.37 m (4 ft 6 in)
Propulsion:	2 × Detroit Diesel 6V92TA DDEC-IV engines, 435 hp (324 kW) each 1,500 liter (373 usable imperial gallons) fuel capacity
Speed:	25 knots (29 mph; 46 km/h) maximum 22 knots (25 mph; 41 km/h) cruising
Range:	200 nmi (370 km) cruising
Complement:	34 Persons, 4 crew, 30 passengers

How About a Little Protection?

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Chuck Hill

The Coast Guard is still using a lot of crew served weapons on their ships. I remember doing LE boardings where only a single .50 was manned because manning our 5″ was considered too much trouble. None of the 210s or smaller cutters have any protection for even their main armament gun crews, other than possibly small gun shields. The gun tubs that were once common on US warships no longer exist.

The theory seems to be that if we show up and are armed, the the bad guys will immediately surrender. While that might work in most cases, sooner or later someone may decide to fight. Certainly any suicidal terrorists would fight rather than surrender. If that happens, wouldn’t it be prudent to provide a little protection for the guys behind the mounts? In most cases it seems they are easy targets standing proudly behind their weapons in full view of anyone who might choose to shoot. There are simple things we can do to protect our gunners and make sure they can continue to provide effective fire if they bullets start flying in their direction.
Shipboard Ballistic Weapon Mount

Modular armored security shields capable of defeating a .50 cal. rounds, that can replace existing tripod mounts and can be tailored to the application are in the GSA system. Looks like a typical system for a .50 would weigh about 800-1000 pounds. I don’t think this could cost too much and it might mean the difference between success and failure for an important mission.