Multiple crewing for Fast Response Cutters

Posted on March 23, 2011 by Chuck Hill

If you are a regular reader of the posts here, you know that I have not been a fan of the “Crew Rotation Concept” that is supposed to make up for the fact that we are only building eight NSC to replace twelve Hamilton Class WHECs by home-porting three ships together and providing four crews. (Previous posts on this here and here.)

One of my criticism has been that if multiple crewing is such a good idea, we should be trying it on smaller, simpler ships first. This got me thinking about how it might work for the Fast Response Cutters (FRC), and I’ve come up with a bit different concept. It may offer some advantages and there may be good reasons to try it

Continue reading →

18 March 1945, CG manned DEs Sink U866

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Chuck Hill

The Naval History and Heritage Command noted, “On 18 March 1945, USS Menges (DE 320), USS Mosely (DE 321), USS Pride (DE 323) and USS Lowe (DE 325) sank the German submarine U 866 south of Nova Scotia.”

These four Destroyer Escorts were among the 30 manned by the Coast Guard.

Here is the story of one of them:

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY — NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE — WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

“Lowe

“Harry James Lowe, Jr., born 6 January 1922 In Paducah, Ky., entered naval service as a seaman apprentice 28 August 1940. He served in San Francisco from 6 December 1940 to 12 November 1942, when he was killed in action off the Solomon Islands when he refused to abandon his gun in the face of an onrushing Japanese torpedo plane. For his extraordinary heroism, Gunner’s Mate Third Class Lowe was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross. (The torpedo plane crashed into his gun mount-Chuck) Continue reading →

Acquisition Directorate Newsletter, March 2011

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Chuck Hill

The March 2011 issue of the Acquisition Directorate Newsletter, “Delivering the Goods” is available here. As usual there are two articles:

“Turning Inward: Addressing the Coast Guard’s Inland Fleet”
“Interagency Operations Centers Begin WatchKeeper Technology Demonstrations at Selected Ports”

And Master Chief Ayer answers the question, “Can you tell us more about the weapons system that will be installed on the new Sentinel-class patrol boats?”

Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief (HA/DR) Ship Proposal

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Chuck Hill

The Naval Institute Blog has an interesting proposal for re-purposing Navy ships that are planned to be decommissioned specifically for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. This would include partnership station and cooperation with NGOs.

There are some issues that come up. The Navy ships, frequently get used, because they are already in the area. How many repurposed NA/DR ships can you have and where will they be stationed? If they are Navy manned won’t their still be suspicions about their purpose? These are really big ships, there are lots of places they can’t go because of their draft.

After Katrina, Haiti, and now Japan, I can’t help but think the CG is part of the solution. If nothing else a container hosting capability on the Offshore Patrol Cutters (OPC) and some “hospital ship” and “disaster command post” modules in storage.

Coast Guard, Piracy in the IO, and the American EEZ

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Chuck Hill

Over the last couple of years we have heard repeatedly that the area of the Indian Ocean (IO), where pirates operate is huge, too large to be patrolled effectively by the rather large international force already there. We might take the opportunity to point out that the total area is less than the size of the US Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) the Coast Guard is tasked to patrol.

WMD Material Bound from China to Iran Seized in Malasia

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Chuck Hill

The Coast Guard has rightly become concerned about what may be shipping in all those containers. We just had the Israeli intercept at sea, and now we hear that a couple of weeks ago, Malaysia seized two containers loaded with embargoed material that could be used to make WMDs including nuclear weapons bound from China to Iran.

There is no indication that the Chinese government was implicated in the transfer, but the US has been concerned that Chinese private companies may be helping the Iranians.

Israeli Navy Seizes Arms Smuggler with ASCMs on board

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Chuck Hill

The Israeli Navy has interdicted an arms smuggling vessel 200 miles off their coast. The arms are believed to have been en route Hamas in the Gaza strip, and there is speculation that the weapons, at least some of which were made in Iran, were delivered to Syria for transhipment by the Iranian Naval vessels that recently transited the Suez Canal.

Interestingly, among the arms found on board were Chinese designed, Iranian made C-704 anti-ship cruise missiles.

This is a smaller weapon than a harpoon. The Chinese make a series of anti-ship weapons, quoting, “While TL-10 series is specifically designed to engage boats displacing 500 tons or less, TL-6 series is specifically designed to engage larger naval vessel with displacement up to 1,000 tons. Along with C-704 that covers ships from 1,000 tons to 3,000 tons, and larger anti ship missiles such as C-802 that covers large ships, China has developed a complete anti ship cruise missile families that covers every displacement class. Western sources have claimed that the Iranian Nasr anti-ship missile is based on TL-6.”

(Israeli Defense Forces Photo)

Piracy Update: Pirates 61 Captured, 14 Indicted, 5 Sentenced

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Chuck Hill

The Indian Navy captured 61 pirates and freed 13 hostages in their third mothership take down of the year. The two previous operations were Jan. 28 and Feb 5. Sixty-one seems like a lot of pirates on a small ship.

A US court sentenced 5 pirates who had mistakenly attacked the frigate USS Nicholas to life plus 80 years. More here.

Fourteen of fifteen “suspected pirates” have been indicted in the case of the yacht Quest that resulted in the murder of 4 Americans.

And “As a last resort, the U.S. Coast Guard is drafting proposals to authorize merchant marines and private boat owners to use weapons against the pirates.”

Photo Contest Winners Announced

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Chuck Hill

The Coast Guard Compass has announced the winners of their 2010 People’s Choice Photo Contest. You can see them here.

Does This Mean the Chinese Will Create an American Style Coast Guard?

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Chuck Hill

This is the second time I’ve seen reference to Chinese frustration with the fractured nature of their maritime law enforcement organization. As mentioned before, China currently has five different agencies that share “coast guard” duties. This has got to lead to some inefficiencies. Again we see the Chinese comparing their maritime law enforcement organization to that of the Japanese.

It will be interesting to see what the Chinese do about this perceived problem.