Voting has opened for the fifth annual “MilBloggie” awards, recognizing military related blogs in ten categories. You can cast your votes here.
The U. S. Coast Guard nominees are:
CGBlog
http://cgblog.org/
ryanerickson.com
http://ryanerickson.com/
Coast Guard Compass
http://coastguard.dodlive.mil/
Cadet Journal – United States Coast Guard Academy
http://www.cga.edu/display.aspx?id=13193
Those of us at CGBlog would appreciate your vote. Winners will be announced on Friday, April 29.
Summary (HTML) Highlights Page (PDF) Full Report (PDF, 18 pages) Accessible TextThe thrust of the report seems to be that while the coast Guard has made some progress in managing its own programs since terminating Deepwater there are still a lot of problems and many of them stem from being unrealistic about budget expectations. There also seems to be an underlying frustration because the Coast Guard is not offering real alternatives to the fleet mix proposed by the discredited “Deepwater” program.
“We reported in 2009 that the administration’s budget projections indicated that the DHS annual budget was expected to remain constant or decrease over the next decade. When the Coast Guard submitted its fiscal year 2012 budget request, it also released its fiscal years 2012-2016 acquisition capital investment plan. In reviewing this plan, we found that the Coast Guard’s projected funding levels for fiscal years 2013 through 2016 are significantly higher than budgets previously appropriated or requested and therefore may be unrealistic. This unrealistic acquisition budget planning exacerbates the challenges Coast Guard acquisition programs face. As seen in figure 2, the average annual budget plan from fiscal year 2012-through fiscal year 2016 is about $520 million, or approximately 37 percent, higher than the average Coast Guard acquisition budgets previously appropriated or requested during the past 6 years.”
As usual EagleSpeak had the latest information on piracy, and here he makes a good point about the efficacy of armed security teams in protecting ships from piracy.
The Acquisition Directorate has published the April edition of their “Delivering the Goods” newsletter. The main story is about the upgrade of the H-65 helicopters to “D” models and future plans for additional improvements. It also talks about the R&D Centers research into keeping out invasive species; there is a short update of the Mission Effectiveness Program; and Master Chief Ayer talks about the choices that resulted in the Response Boat-Medium and why it is not ice capable.
You can get a pdf copy here.
KODIAK, Alaska – The crews of the ships Bertholf and Vorovsky sail west to the Bering Sea on a joint exchange April 21, 2011. The Vorovsky is a Krivak-class frigate commissioned in 1990 for the Russian Federal Security Service and the Bertholf is the first of the Coast Guard’s National Security Cutters, Legend-class, commissioned in 2008. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Sara Francis
This photo was taken during an exchange visit by the Russian Federal Security Service ship Vorovsky to Kodiak. This is the latest in a regular series of bi-annual port visits between the Coast Guard and the Russian Security Service, alternating visits between Alaskan and Siberian ports. The Seventeenth District Commander and the Chief of the Northeast Border Directorate of the Federal Security Service of Russia and some of their staff members used the opportunity to meet.
As the Russian equivalent of our National Security Cutter or Maritime Security, Large (WMSL), I find it interesting to compare the Russian vessel with the Bertholf. The Vorovsky, almost 20 years older, is the newest of seven “Krivak III” (NATO designation) class frigate, derived from the Soviet Navy’s “Krivak” class, but with modifications for “coast guard” tasks, primarily the addition a helicopter deck and hanger. Continue reading
Wednesday, April 13, the President asked for a new roles and missions analysis, with the intention of saving $400B from “security spending,” over the next twelve years. Reportedly this will include the departments of Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, and Energy, as well as DOD.
A little surprising to me this will include DHS and by extension the Coast Guard. The first thing that comes to mind of course is cuts, but that isn’t the only way things could go. There could also be some reassignment of responsibility, that result in over all savings, but leave one or more service or agency stronger than before. Of course it could also mean moving the Coast Guard into the Navy Department could be looked at again.
Will The Coast Guard stop operating larger ships and simply put boarding teams on Navy ships? or will the Coast Coast Guard be seen as a Naval asset that with a little augmentation could take over some of the Navy’s roles? Or will the CG simply be ignored?
What should the Coast Guard’s “security” roles be? For counter terrorism? For wartime? What “core competencies” does the Coast Guard need to maintain? Could this effect other missions as well?
The Bernard C. Webber, first of the Sentinel Class Cutters (aka Fast Response Cutters), will launch tomorrow, Thursday, 21 April.
The Cutterman facebook page has some new photos.
This is a very big Patrol Boat.
Cutter Escanaba is participating in Exercise UNITAS, April 15 to May 9, along with Destroyer Nitze and Frigates Boone and Thach.
Escanaba is a very internet savvy ship. You can follow her on facebook here. Other participants will include units from Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico.
Military.com has an interesting video here. Of course as the structure of a boat gets lighter, it can carry more, go faster, or require less power to push it at speed. This one is made of a composite honeycomb sandwich.
They claim a range of 3,000 miles, it would seem, similar unmanned remotely piloted surface vessel could be useful in extending the radar and visual horizon of our patrol ships relatively cheaply, without the complications of unmanned aircraft.
Because of the low weight, they claim fuel consumption is a quarter of that of a conventional aluminum craft.
More media photos and video here.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 