Doesn’t look like the Coast Guard is providing a featured speaker for this event. Trust we will have some high level representation, but it would not hurt to have some worker bees too.
Because the Coast Guard regularly operates in the waters off Latin America, and flies patrols from bases there, we probably want to pay attention to what is happening in region.
Venezuela recently broke off diplomatic relations with Columbia, after Colombian accusations that Venezuela was sheltering FARC rebels.
There was already an uproar about the recent agreement between the US and Costa Rica allowing the US military limited access to Costa Rica to refuel ships and pursue drug traffickers. There was substantial opposition within Costa Rica and much speculation from the anti-American quarters that the US would use Costa Rica as an avenue to attack Nicaragua or Venezuela.
Before that, there were accusations that the US was behind the 2009 coup in Honduras that removed a pro-Venezuelan President.
We are seeing the solidification of anti-American feeling exemplified by the emergence of the “Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our America” or ALBA, which began as an economic alliance between Cuba and Venezuela and now also includes Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Dominica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Saint vincent and the Grenadines.
All the chest pounding and anger against the US and Colombia is probably more for domestic consumption than any indication of immediate intent, but we might see some of this hostility in port and sometime angry words are translated into action by young men, acting without their government’s blessing. Our people are in a potentially dangerous region where not everyone sees us as the good guys.
As they say, “Be careful out there.”
Back in May, I mentioned that a laser equipped Phalanx CIWS had successfully shot down a drone target, “What’s Next, a Laser Death Ray for Our Major Cutters?” Now we have the video and more details from Scientific American.
Since this was done with commercially available lasers and is expected to be operational as early as 2016, it is clear that beam weapons are coming on faster than we might have expected. A capability not addressed in any of the articles I have seen so far is the ability to blind pilots of manned aircraft even if it does not destroy the aircraft directly. There is also the possibility of having very precise ability to disable boats, or the ability to apply it in a low powered, non-lethal way to force compliance by making individuals very uncomfortable, in addition to use against cruise missiles and small boat swarms. It might even be used against incoming artillery shells.
Thinking about implications for the future, this does suggest we may want to make sure our future ships have ample electrical generating capacity. Having diesel electric propulsion would make that relatively simple.
There is a new radar system that we might want to take a look at (perhaps the Department, Customs and Border Protection, and DEA as well). It is palletized and looks like it would fit on our H-60s or C-144s, and certainly on our C-130s. It is claimed to provide both a capability against very small, fleeting surface targets like periscopes, even in high clutter, which would, of course include semi-submersibles or snorkels, and air targets, a capability I don’t think we have had since the retirement of the Coast Guard E-2s.
It was developed for the Royal Navy to replace their existing Airborne Early Warning (AEW) system, but Boeing is looking at it for the US market, including the MV-22, as well. There is a brief description of the radar here, there is a two page downloadable pdf here, digilander.libero.it/humboldt/pdf/searchwater.pdf, that is probably the best description, or if you would like a slide show that was part of an AEW seminar, start here then continue to press next to the end of the section.
The same seminar had a section on a UAV based system that seemed to have incredible resolution that might also be interesting. It starts here.
Here is a thread with some great pictures of other country’s solutions to the requirements for an offshore patrol vessel.
Is the Fleet Shrinking?
I got curious and did a small survey of the fleet size using resources I had at hand (that’s why I used 1982 instead of the more logical 1980). So here is a comparison of the fleet composition in 1982, 1990, 2000, and 2010 with some notes about the future. To make the information more meaningful, I have grouped the ships in categories by displacement and provided subtotals of all the ships in that category or larger. There is a more specific evaluation of patrol vessels near the bottom. My sources are at the foot.
(note: loa is length over all. tons (fl) is full load displacement)
Type Class loa tons (fl) 1982 1990 2000 2010
WAGB Healy 420 16,000 – – 1 1
WAGB Polar 399 12,087 2 2 2 2
WAGB Glacier 310 8,449 1 – – –
——————————————————————————————————-
=> 8,000 tons 3 2 3 3
——————————————————————————————————-
WAGB Wind 269 6,515 2 – – –
WAGB Mackinaw 290 5,252 1 1 1 –
WMSL Bertholf 418 4,306 – – – 2
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Onera, a French Aerospace research center, claims to have developed a “surface wave radar” that follows the curvature of the Earth and provides coverage out to at least 400 kilometers (about 220 nautical miles). It is claimed to detect air as well as surface targets, with ranges limited only by transmitter power. The system was tested in June 2010 at Biscarosse in Southwestern France. They tell their story here.
More photos of the narco-sub and the “shipyard” where it was built here.
This article has a bit more information but the most interesting part is an almost 30 minute video (in Spanish with English subtitles) about development of semi-submersibles and towed submersible cargo containers. It includes comments by both the Captain commanding the Colombian Coast Guard in the Pacific and a “retired” drug smuggler. Be aware there are commercials, but I recommend it highly. (Ex-WMEC-628 Durable, transferred in 2003, is visible in many of the scenes from the Colombian base.)
Here is a bit more information about how the Mumbai terrorist attack developed, provided by UK based Warship magazine. That the boat carrying the terrorists was boarded and the boarding officers captured and killed without alerting the authorities should reaffirm the importance of supporting and keeping track of our people. Hopefully this would not have happened to a USCG team.
The reports of the Ecuadorian Police and DEA finding a true submarine, that is one capable of submerging, about 100 feet long, built to smuggle six to ten metric tons of Cocaine, appeared over the 4th of July weekend. If you missed the reports, they are here and here.
The existence of such a sub raises some interesting operational questions.
First of course, they are more difficult to find than even the semi-submersibles that have been used in the past, and the Coast Guard has essentially no capability to detect a fully submerged submarine.
But even if the submarine is detected, first you have to be sure it is a Narco sub and not one of the hundreds of other subs out there that belong to the over forty countries that operate subs. Then how do you stop it? How do you even signal it? Do you sink it? In international waters? You might not be able to maintain contact for very long, so it better not take too long to get a decision on use of force?
Would be very interesting to find out what the true capabilities of the sub would have been.
Time to stock up on percussion grenades?
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 