PilotOnline.com reports Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Nick Beane was one of two bystanders that cut one of two crewmen out of his parachute and dragged him away from fire and explosions that resulted from the crash of their disabled F/A-18.
A little over a year ago, I published a post entitled “What Does It Take to Sink a Ship.” It has proven perhaps my most widely read post. The recent sinking of the Japanese fishing vessel Ryou-Un Maru beautifully illustrates the point that ships can be very hard to sink by gun fire.
Reportedly the USCGC Anacapa began the operation at 13:00 and the Ryou-Un Maru sank at 18:15. It appears that the F/V may have been hit 100 times by explosive 25mm projectiles. With no crew aboard to do damage control and probably with no real measures taken to ensure water tight doors were closed, it stayed afloat for over five hours and ultimately the Anacapa resorted to pumping water into the vessel to sink it.
This was a very small ship, probably less than 500 tons, the implications for our ability to stop a medium to large vessel with a determined crew on board, bent on using the vessel for a terrorist act in an American port should be obvious. With even crude and unsophisticated measures to protect vital machinery and control functions, a ship can resist a great deal of gunfire and continue to its objective.
Late Addition–Video of the sinking added 25 Dec. 2012
gCaptain reports, Shell oil recently took delivery of a 360 foot icebreaker anchor handling vessel. This is the fourth icebreaker built by Edison Chouest Offshore in the last two decades. Two of them (Laurence M. Gould and Nathaniel B. Palmer) were chartered by the National Science Foundation to support their high latitude work.
Reportedly this is part of a continuing trend toward larger vessels to support oil drilling as it moves further off shore.
While it is certainly no Polar Class, it appears to be larger than either the Wind Class or the Glacier. Its good to know that if we wanted to quickly build an arctic patrol vessel that would not break the bank (reported cost $200M), there is at least one American shipyard up to the task.
Short video here. USCGC Waesche was in Hawaii heading for SE Asia to train with nations in that region. Maybe they will even get to do some fisheries in the American EEZ in the western Pacific.
(Thanks to Bill for the link)
A short video of WPC-1102 moving at warp speed.
Two new forms of visualization.
Thanks to gCaptain for finding these. You can get more info and 20 minute version of Perpetual Ocean here.
The Chinese have built an interesting little ship with a trimaran hull, that appears to designed for one of their several coast guard type organizations. It is designated “North Rescue 143.”
It looks a little like a cross between a 110 and an Independence Class Littoral Combat Ship.
Of course this is not the first time the Chinese have shown an interest in non-conventional hull forms. There had been some indication they intended to use the basic form of their catamaran Type 022 (Houbei Class) missile boats as a patrol boat.
Navy Times is reporting Coast Guard efforts establish a presence in the Arctic are getting some support from USNORTHCOM.
“The Defense Department will help bolster the Coast Guard’s presence in the Arctic, the commander of U.S. Northern Command told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“Army Gen. Charles Jacoby and Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Bob Papp signed a white paper March 13 that addresses capability gaps in infrastructure, communications, domain awareness and presence in the Arctic.”
Good to see a Combatant Commander (COCOM) supporting Coast Guard programs that serve his Area of Responsibility (AOR). This is in contrast to USSOUTHCOM’s silence regarding Coast Guard needs when it came to providing ships for drug interdiction.
The Navy Times article focuses on the proposed new ice breaker, but there appears to be more to it than that. Certainly there is a need for defense infrastructure in the Arctic and the Coast Guard may be seen as caretakers for facilities that could be augmented in times of crisis. Perhaps putting words into action, DARPA is working on systems that might facilitate “Domain Awareness” in the Arctic.
(It had looked like the Canadians were ahead of us in Arctic operations, but apparently they do not see it that way.)
The world is divided into six COCOM Areas of Responsibility. Coast Guard personnel serve in all of them. Coast Guard units are either permanently or frequently assigned to at least five of them. Hopefully Coast Guard participation is sufficiently valued that they will occasionally speak on behalf of the Coast Guard.
Thanks to fiercehomelandsecurity.com, we have a summary of the FY2013 budget request for the Coast Guard. They also provide a link to the full budget justification.
I would like to focus on the AC&I portion and compare and contrast it with the FY 2012 appropriation which we talked about here.
Total AC&I funds go down from $1,463,968,000 to $1,192,309,000, a drop of almost 18%.
In the out years (FY 2014, 2015 and 2016) the AC&I budget is projected to rise above the FY2012 level.
A number of programs are zeroed out in FY 2013, either because they are cancelled, are on hold, or because they are complete. These include “In-service Vessel Sustainment,” Response Boat-Medium, HH-60 conversion projects, Long Range Surveillance Aircraft (C-130H/J), Rescue 21, Inter-agency Operations Centers (IOCs).
AC&I for vessels went up from $642M to $879.5M, but last year did not fund an NSC as this one does. As has been reported the seven and eighth NSC have been removed from the out-year budgets.
The breakdown for “vessels” (cutters, small boats and related equipment) looks like this:
………………………………………………….FY2012………..FY2013
Total for Vessels ……………………………….$642M……….$879.5M
Icebreakers:
There is a total of $770M identified for a new icebreaker in FY 2014, 2015, and 2017. Total acquisition cost “TBD.”
“The survey and design phase (for the new icebreaker) would last from the second quarter of fiscal 2013 through the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016, according to the justification.”
Offshore Patrol Vessels:
The $30M is to fund competitive design efforts by up to three short-listed competing ship building organizations. This is expected to be a two step, three year design process beginning after the end of FY 2012, followed by a presumably three to four year construction process to hopefully deliver the first OPC before the end of calender year 2019. Surprisingly the out-years appear to provide for OPC construction at the rate of only one ship per year. Only $360M per year in FY2015 (first ship), 2016, and 2017. If we continue to build OPCs at only one per year it will take until 2043 to build the 25 projected by which time the newest 270 will be 53 years old. 2045 if we build two extra to replace the cancelled NSCs. (That would be truly ridiculous.) Stretching out the production run will inevitably lead to higher unit costs in contrast to the multi-year production contracts the Navy used for the Littoral Combat Ships (two five year contracts with options for up to 10 ships each).
Fast Response Cutters
The cutters are being built at a rate of four per year. Last years budget included funds for six. FY 2013 request funds number 19 and 20, and will keep the line going. FY 2014, 2015, and 2016 go back up to a $360M/year level.
AC&I for aircraft dropped from $354.4M to $74.5M.
Out years are all higher than FY 2012, as purchases of HC-144s are projected to go back up from $43M in FY 2013 to $220M/year for the succeeding three years and a total of $470M is projected for C-130s 2014-2016. Some notes of interest below:
“The LRS program continues efforts to extend the operating life and enhance the capability of the HC-130H fleet by replacing key component Center Wing Boxes (CWBs) and adding new capability (avionics-A1U), permanently defers the second avionics upgrade (A2U), and reduces the scope of the mission systems upgrade in favor of C-130J production. Consolidation of the C-130H and C-130J PPAs into one new LRS Project enables greater flexibility toward achieving an 11H/11J fleet configuration, which is expected to result in increased mission effectiveness and minimizes lifecycle cost. The eventual goal is to transition to an all C-130J fleet by the mid-2020s, when it will no longer be practical or affordable to keep the C-130H in service.”
“The Coast Guard intends to leverage FY 2012 funding initially intended for the H-60 Radar Sensor System for sustainment segments now underway, including life-limiting component recapitalization and replacement of obsolete components. These revised plans will focus resources on sustaining existing capacity and capability.”
Finally:
AC&I for “Shore, Military Housing and Aids to Navigation dropped from approximately $200.7M to 69.4M.
If we could get the Air Force’s nearly new C-27Js in lieu of HC-144s as has been discussed, it might allow us to build a second OPC each year.
(Note most of the cost breakdown information is found on page CG-AC&I-12)
Thanks to the Coast Guard and http://www.fiercehomelandsecurity.com, we have a summary of the”High Latitude Region Mission Analysis,” that was given to Congress last year. You can get see it in the form of a pfd here.
Bottom line:
How soon?:
“U.S. Sen. Mark Begich says the Coast Guard is including $860 million in its five-year budget plan for a new heavy polar icebreaker.”
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 