Historically there have been two reasons to arm Coast Guard assets. Since 9/11 there is clearly another. Historically Coast Guard units were armed for law enforcement and to act as a naval reserve. The rationale added since 9/11 is to stop a maritime terrorist attack, and while there may be overlaps with the law enforcement and naval reserve mission capabilities, there are differences as well.
The US has the largest Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the world (roughly 12,000,000 sq.km.), and roughly a fourth of it is in the Pacific, far south of Alaska, and west of Hawaii, in fact much more of it than is in the Arctic. While warming Arctic waters have been attracting a lot of press, if not much substantial action, the Central and Western Pacific EEZ has received relatively little attention, maybe because they don’t have any Congressional representation. I don’t have good figures on this, but looking at this chart of the US EEZ, its apparent that if Coast Guard assets were distributed on the basis of size of the EEZ, about 80% of the Coast Guard would be based in the Pacific.
Each little island out there, if it is more than 400 nautical miles from the nearest land, is surrounded by at least 125,664 square miles (431,000 sq.km) of territorial sea, contiguous zone, EEZ, and perhaps some additional continental shelf.
New Zealand’s Foreign Minister, Murray McCully, has called for greater cooperation between the US and New Zealand. Specifically he is calling for more USCG activity in the South Pacific to stop illegal fishing and drug smuggling, “I believe the time has come for New Zealand, the US and Australia to dramatically step up our collective surveillance activity in the region to provide a comprehensive assault on illegal activity…”
Apparently, talks are in progress now.
A lot of old CG icebreaker sailors have pleasant memories of Christchurch, New Zealand. Relations with New Zealand have been cool for decades because of a ban on nuclear weapons in New Zealand waters and a refusal by the US to “confirm or deny” the presence of nuclear weapons on our ships (I think once we refused to answer if the Eagle had nuclear weapons on board and she was denied permission to enter a New Zealand port).
That may be changing, as in Costa Rica, it looks like while the US Navy may not be welcome in New Zealand, the Coast Guard may be.
In addition to Guam, US territories and possessions in the Pacific include:
The other nation in the area with substantial assets and interests is France.
The unrest in North Africa is creating something like a “Boat Lift” situation in the Mediterranean. Increased European integration, in the form of an EU agency called Frontex, is providing some assistance to the nations of Southern Europe that are experiencing an influx of immigrants.
An American company (ATK, Alliant Techsystems Inc now part of Northrop Grumman), is modifying the same basic airframe used for the Coast Guard HC-144 (the EADS CASA, now Airbus Military, CN-235) into a miniature AC-130 for the Jordanian Air Force. Source. (Note due to a broken link I have updated the post with an alternative source for the story.)
Image: http://cgig.uscg.mil/media/main.php?g2_itemId=231228&g2_imageViewsIndex=1
“ATK will install and integrate electro-optical targeting systems, a laser designator, aircraft self-protection equipment, and an armaments capability that includes Hellfire laser-guided missiles, 2.75-inch rockets, and a M230 link-fed 30mm chain gun. ATK’s M230 family of guns serves on the Apache helicopter….ATK’s scope of work includes development, systems integration, aircraft modification, and testing. Work will be performed in Jordan and at ATK facilities in Fort Worth, TX, Mesa, AZ and Pelham, AL.”
Looks like if we ever want to add an “airborne use of force” to these aircraft, there is a source that will have already had the experience.
It looks like al Shabaab, the Somali branch of al Qaeda, is trying to get a share of the piracy profits. The post also referenced an interesting discussion of how al Shabaab is financed here.
Lloyds of London may be establishing a fleet of patrol boats to provide escorts through the Gulf of Aden for ships insured under their policies.
Royal Navy frigate HMS Cornwall not only broke up a pirate attack in progress, she took down the Yemeni-flagged dhow being used as a mother-ship, capturing 17 pirates and freeing 5 crewman who had been held hostage for 92 days.
Four Americans aboard the yacht S/V Quest were seized by pirates 240 nautical miles off the coast of Oman.
The Cutterman’s Association has posted a new picture of the Sentinel class WPC Bernard C. Webber. Looks like she is very close to being launched.
A quick comparison between the size of the Navy Department (which includes the Marines as well as the Navy) and the Coast Guard and the relative size of their FY2012 budget requests:
The FY 2012 budget for “vessels” is a year without major funding for the National Security Cutter (NSC) project. It only includes $77M to finish funding the fifth ship. Consequently, even though vessel funding dropped from $851.7M in the FY2011 request to only $642M, we see the start of a program to update 140-foot WTGBs, 225-foot WLBs and 175- foot WLMs, beginning with the oldest WTGB and funding of five Mission Effectiveness Projects (MEP) for 270 foot WMECs. We also see an acceleration of the Response Boat-Medium and Fast Response Cutter Programs.
But of course the plan has been to complete the NSC program before starting the OPC program and having the first OPC delivered in 2019. I don’t see how this can happen without a major bump in AC&I funding or at least a major diversion from other areas. The funding for the first five NSCs was spread over eleven years. In the last ten budgets, from FY 2003-2012, NSC funding has averaged $312M. Only in FY 2011 did funding for the program approach the full cost of an NSC ($615M requested compared to a projected cost of $697M for NSC#5), that year, there was no funding for the Fast Response Cutter Program. The Coast Guard is unlikely to get $1.2B it needs in FY 2013/14/15 to complete the “In Service Vessel Sustainment” and WMEC Mission Effectiveness Projects and each year build:
Short of canceling one or more of the NSCs (my preferred alternative), the only way to deliver an OPC by 2019 is to build the NSCs and OPCs in parallel.
Another island territorial dispute, and as usual, a coast guard is in the middle of it.
The Russian Coast Guard denied Japanese media reports on Wednesday that it had opened fire on a Japanese fishing vessel off the disputed South Kuril islands. (The Russian Coast Guard did shoot into a Japanese fishing vessel about a year ago.) Continue reading
Earlier I asked this question regarding NSC #5 (WMSL 754 James), because what I had seen recently seemed out of line with the prices I had seen reported for #4 (WMSL 753 Hamilton). Someone from Headquarters was good enough to point me to a helpful 3,311 page document, the DHS 2012 budget justification (this is a large pdf), and even told me where to look (see page 1622 of the pdf). Turns out the total costs are pretty close. Continue reading
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