Naval Recognition has a good overview of the RB-M. You  can see it here.

Towing exercises are a Coast Guard staple, but how about towing the largest ship in the world. The French recently did it successfully, and gCaptain has the photographs. That little tow boat is 80 meters (262 feet). The towed vessel is 396 meters (1299 feet) and 250,000 tons.

Reportedly the towing vessel Abeille Bourbon was able to tow her at 10kph (about 5 knots) using only half power.

US Navy photo, USS Gary (FFG 51) Nov. 5, 2002

According to a recent press release, “A Miami-based U. S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment and the crew of USS Gary (FFG-51) stopped a go-fast carrying more than 1,100 pounds of cocaine approximately 300 miles off the Pacific coast of Columbia, Feb. 23.”

It was a common enough scenario, but it may be coming to an end, at least for a while. The Navy has cancelled deployment of two frigates slated for counter-drug operations due to sequestration.

The Commandant noted, “If those [frigates] go, we don’t have enough platforms to put Coast Guard Law Enforcement Teams on. We would be down to the point where we would only be using Coast Guard cutters and we don’t have enough [of those] to meet the demand JIATF South has for us.”

MaritimeMemos is showing a photo of the fromer USCGC Hornbeam (WLB-394), now renamed the Rum Cay Grace, one of six ships reported blown ashore on the rocks of Colon, Panama.

Photo:  USCG photo. Division 11 of Coast Guard Squadron One departs Subic Bay Naval Base for Vietnam, 17 July 1965. USCGC Point Marone (WPB-82331) is in foreground.

Today is the 48th anniversary of the initiation of Operation Market Time, an experience that would mark a generation of Coast Guard Cuttermen, and provides a template for the sort of operations the Coast Guard might be involved in the future. There is a good history of the Coast Guard’s role in the operation here.

China is reporting they will combine assets of four separate maritime law enforcement agencies to form a new Coast Guard.

The new agency will combine the China Maritime Surveillance (CMS) of the State Oceanic Administration (SOA), Fisheries Law Enforcement Command (FLEC), the anti-smuggling force of the General Administration of Customs, and their “Coast Guard” (aka Maritime Police in Chinese).

Ironically from the US point of view, SAR is not one of the agency’s responsibilities as the Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) of the Ministry of Transport will remain separate.

The Economist notes, “Experts have long lobbied for an end to the separation of maritime policing  responsibilities between different forces, nicknamed the “Nine Dragons”. While  hawkish military experts hope the merger will strengthen China’s enforcement of  its territorial claims, some foreign policy experts hope it could help reduce  tensions as rival agencies no longer feel compelled to compete for public  attention and funds by challenging ships from neighbouring countries.”

Additional sources: http://china-defense.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-real-chinese-coast-guard-is-finally.html

Think Defence has a collection of interesting videos, press releases, and  a power point presentation about recent developments in the world of rotary wing aircraft.

The section of “Future US Vertical Lift” includes a power point presentation with a lot of information. It even references the Coast Guard’s helicopters. You can page through the presentation by moving the cursor to the right edge of the image labeled “Special Operations Forces Industry Conference.”

Interesting stuff, but the Coast Guard may have to start replacing their current fleet before any of the new developments come to fruition.

The Commandant issued his state of the Coast Guard speech in DC on February 27, 2013. You can find it here: Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Papp’s State of the Coast Guard Address 2013

There is also a closely related document, the Commandant’s SITREP 2013, you can access here (Look in the column on the right side of the page): http://www.uscg.mil/seniorleadership/

I did not see anything surprising in either document, but they do provide what the Commandant might call a fix on where the service is. Despite the uncertainty of future budgets, the speech was optimistic, even inspiring, while acknowledging that the fiscal climate, like the weather, is beyond our control, and that we are in for some “uncertain and stormy seas.”

He spent a lot of time on changes in personnel qualification systems, emergency response, and Deployable Specialized Forces.

Below are a some highlights that I found particularly interesting.

“…We had a strong response to our Request for Proposals for the new Offshore Patrol Cutter, and we will soon announce the three finalists for that project.”

“Another big event for us this year is the move to our new Headquarters. It will be the first time in our over two centuries of service we’ve had a building – designed from the ground up – to be a Coast Guard Headquarters. It’s almost complete, and we move in a few short months.”

“The Armed Forces Qualification test scores for our new enlisted members lead the five military services, and well over half of our new members have college experience.”

“I am pleased to announce that next month we plan to release the first comprehensive Coast Guard Arctic Strategy. The strategy will focus on three main priorities:
1) Improving Arctic awareness, 2) Modernizing governance, and 3) Broadening partnerships.”

——

Below are some related news stories that provide background to the Commandant’s remarks:

The Navy League’s “Seapower” magazine reports, after the address, Admiral Papp reportedly told reporters UAVs were no longer a priority for the Coast Guard, but the Arctic is.

Progress on the new icebreaker: http://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg9/newsroom/updates/icebreaker022813.asp

North East Passage (along the Arctic coast of Russia), 2012 was a busy year. http://www.casr.ca/as-arctic-council-northern-sea-route.htm

Fiercehomelandsecurity.com provides a breakdown of how the $295M FY2013budget reduction will be distributed among the various Coast Guard accounts.

Most will come out of operating expenses, the largest account, but reductions are generally spread to all accounts with the range of reductions being between 5.0 and 5.4%. That may not sound like a huge cut, but we are already well into FY2013, and since many, perhaps most, costs are fixed, or nearly so, those things that can be cut will be cut severely.

I don’t expect to be able to blog for a bit over a week. I’ll be back here on March 4.