The Coast Guard intends to lease a contractor provided and crewed vessel for a period of five years.

This is the “Concept of Operations”

2.1 Relationship with Coast Guard Personnel

The contractor shall operate and maintain the vessel, navigating under the guidance of the embarked USCG Operations Manager. The contractor shall engage the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) regarding ongoing contract management and execution activities, concerns, and issues. The contractor’s personnel (e.g. ship’s Master) will retain command and control of the vessel safety and operation in execution of the Operations Manager and COR direction.

2.2 Concept of Operations

The primary mission is to project sovereignty and augment the Coast Guard’s current fleet to achieve complete operational control of the U.S. border and maritime approaches. The contractor will provide a logistics and mission support vessel to increase the capability and capacity of existing assets (e.g. food, fuel, potable water, laundry, personnel).

It I not clear how this ship will help the current fleet “achieve complete operational control of the U.S. border and maritime approaches.” Potential operating areas include just about anywhere the Coast Guard currently operates. Required capabilities are listed below.

The range is shorter than that of an FRC.

In terms of logistics, as an underway replenishment vessel the 10,000 gallons is 62.5% of the fuel capacity of an FRC.

Perhaps she will be used to transport and house migrants, but that does not seem to go with the command and control mission mentioned or the twelve Coast Guard passengers.

Ultimate capability depends very much on what will be in the four containers she can carry. Do we have anything ready to go?

The failure of the Littoral Combat Ships was that they built the ships before they built the mission modules. Hope we don’t make the same mistake here.

As you have probably heard, Ukraine has used unmanned surface vessels to attack three tankers of the Russian shadow fleet in the Black Sea.

Just wanted to point out where they targeted the vessels, specifically they used multiple unmanned systems and attacked the stern near the engine room, propeller, and rudder.

Tankers. particularly those with empty tanks are very hard targets to sink, with lots of sealed tanks providing reserve buoyancy. During the “Tanker War” in the 1980s tankers proved extremely resilient.

Attacking the propulsion and steering will probably keeps them out of service longer than damage in any other part of the ship.

Should the Coast Guard be faced with an attack on a US port using a medium or larger ship, it might be impossible for local Coast Guard forces to sink the attacking vessel. In that case, it might be best to follow the Ukrainian example and attack the propulsion and/or steering to keep the attacker from reaching its objective and provide time for reinforcements to arrive.

NBC News reports,

“Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday addressed the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker near Venezuela, saying the Coast Guard–led operation was carried out in coordination with the Departments of Defense and Justice, as well as the FBI.”

You have probably heard about the seizure of this tanker off the coast of Venezuela, but you may not have heard that the team that fast roped down on the tanker was Coast Guard.

Above is a Huntington Ingalls video about Frigate variations of the National Security Cutter. The video is now eleven years old. 

Breaking Defense reports,

“Navy Secretary John Phelan recently told attendees at a private dinner that the new frigate would be a modified National Security Cutter, sources told Breaking Defense.”

Apparently this may not be a done deal yet, but sounds likely. Huntington Ingalls may even be able to use parts of cancelled NSC#11 to speed the process.

Ex-USCGC DECISIVE (Credit: Sri Lanka Navy)

Naval News reports,

The Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) formally took delivery of the former United States Coast Guard Cutter, USCGC DECISIVE, provided by the United States to SLN, in a ceremony held at the United States Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore on 02 Dec 25.

The former USCGC Decisive is now 57 years old. This is the fourth former US Coast Guard cutter to join the Sri Lankan Navy. Decisive’s sister ship, USCGC Courageous (SLNS Samudura) was transferred in 2004.

SLNS-Samudura. You can see that Sri Lanka upgraded the armament. 

Sri Lanka also has two much larger 378 foot long Hamilton Class cutters, the former USCGC Sherman transferred in 2018, and the former USCGC Munro, transferred in 2021.

Sri Lanka SLNS Vijayabahu (former USCGC Sherman)

Sri Lanka Navy ship P627 (ex-USCGC Douglas Munro). Source: Jordanroderick via Wikipedia. The CIWS, ESM, and air search radar were removed before transfer. 

Map of Compact of Free Association nations: Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands are in red; the United States is in blue. Prepared by Fephisto via Wikipedia. 

Ran across this chart and thought it might be useful to pass it along. 85% of the US EEZ currently is in areas under the USCG Pacific Area Commander, but, in addition, the US has obligations to help the Compact of Free Association States that also fall under the authority of the Pacific Area, specifically District Oceania (formerly D14).

USCG, CBP, HSI seize vessel with $28M in illicit narcotics off Miami Beach

Below is a news release from District SouthEast (formerly D7).

Law enforcement crews from U.S. Coast Guard Station Miami Beach and CBP Air and Marine Operations seized approximately 3,715 pounds of cocaine, worth an estimated $28 million, from a suspected drug smuggling vessel 2 miles east of government cut, Nov. 2, 2025. CBP AMO law enforcement boat crews provided assistance with multiple marine units and specialized search tools upon initial interdiction by a Coast Guard Station Miami Beach crew. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Coast Guard Station Miami Beach)

“This was the largest USCG Small boat station cocaine seizure since 1995”

Just wanted to point out this boat does not look like the ones found transporting drugs in the Caribbean or in the Eastern Pacific Drug transit zones. This boat looks like a typical American recreational fishing boat. It easily blends in with the local traffic. The boats intercepted in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific do not bring drugs directly into the US. Generally they offload their cargoes for transshipment.