Tag Archives: USCG

Guns for the Offshore Patrol Cutters

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In the interest of saving a big chunk of money, I think the Coast Guard and Navy should reconsider the proposed fitting of the 57 mm gun to the new Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC), and perhaps recycle existing Oto Melara 76mm Mk 75s instead.

If the Navy is going the stop supporting the Mk 75, we probably have no choice, but the 76mm is one of the most widely used weapons in the world. New developments including guided munitions and high velocity discarding sabot rounds are keeping it competitive.

STRALES system Oto Melara Munition Gives Naval Guns Low-Tech, ‘Nonlethal’ Precision

The two systems are very similar in weight and range, with the 76mm having a slight edge in range. The 57mm has a higher rate of fire, but this is balanced by the greater weight of the 76mm projectile.

It may not save the CG a lot in acquisition because, if it is like past programs, the Navy is buying the gun, but the Country has to pay for it, and the CG might benefit in having to retrain fewer people to maintain the weapons.

I think the choice of which is best boils down to what you think the critical threat we need to address is. If it is airplanes and cruise missiles or huge swarms of Iranian speedboats, the 57 mm might be better, but if you think you might have to sink a ship or hit targets ashore, then the 76 is probably better. Frankly I think the latter is more likely. For that reason I would actually prefer we mounted a 5″ Mk 45, but I don’t think that is going to happen.

NSC, Have we been lucky or good?

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Navy Times has reported the Navy has had serious quality problems with their ships built by Northrop Grumman’s Gulf Coast Yards.

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/01/navy_ships_problems_012110w/

“Navy engineers are tackling a raft of problems discovered aboard warships built at the Gulf Coast yards of defense giant Northrop Grumman — including faulty welds, lube-oil problems and a defective engine — in the latest installment of the ongoing saga between the Navy and its largest shipbuilder.

“Inspectors are rechecking every pipe weld aboard every ship built in the last several years at Avondale, La., or Pascagoula, Miss., including destroyers and small- and big-deck amphibs, after discovering so many problems that all pipe welders and Navy inspectors at both yards had to be decertified and then recertified to work on ships.”

Have we been luckier with the National Security Cutters? Is Coast Guard supervision better than that given Navy projects? Or is this a problem that we will see surface in the future?

Multiple crewing of National Security Cutters

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Considering the multi-crew concept for the National Security Cutters, I have my doubts. Here is a brief explanation from the official USCG acquisitions web site:

http://www.uscg.mil/acquisition/NSC/crewing.asp

“Initially, the Coast Guard will employ four crews for three NSCs at a single homeport, rotating the cutters among the crews to limit crew PERSTEMPO to 185 days while maintaining each cutter’s operational tempo (OPTEMPO) at 230 days. The three-cutter, four-crew prototype will be evaluated in 2009 through an operational testing-and-evaluation process. Policy and procedures for CRC are based on the lessons learned by the Coast Guard and the U.S. Navy, as well as consideration of the recommendations made by auditors from the Government Accountability Office.”

First assuming the projections are correct, we are replacing 12 ships which would provide 2,220 operating days with eight ships that will provide at best 1,840 so we are already two ships short.

Then you will also note that the presumption is that the ships will be operated in groups of three from the same home port, but there are only eight ships planned, meaning there will be a rump group of two somewhere. Will they be operated by three crews or by a single crew per ship?

What we hope to save here is acquisition cost, because the operating costs per op day cannot be lowered by this strategy and will actually be higher. I don’t know the projected life cycle costs for the National Security cutters, but in general, I’ve heard that the acquisition costs for similar systems is about 15% of the life cycle cost. Fuel and personnel costs are the real driver. Fuel costs should be the same per op day. Personnel costs will actually be higher, since each crew under the multi-crewing concept will only provide 172.5 op days instead of 185, so personnel costs will be 7.25% higher.

In addition, because the ship will only be in port 135 days a year instead of 180, there will be fewer opportunities for the crew to make repairs. These repairs, normally done by the crew, will have to be done by contractors at additional costs.

I would also note that the acquisition costs we hope to save actually decline as we add more ships. Four additional units are likely to cost far less on the average than the first 8. There is also the long term value of having four additional ships in hand if the country should need them in the future.

Frankly I don’t think we will see any significant savings from this manning approach and it may actually cost us in the long run.

If a truly convincing argument can be made for the concept, I would like to see it. And if the argument involves lower overhead because we get more “mission” op days compared to RefTra day, remember the reason we go, is to train the crews, not the ships, so every crew will needs to go.

Tivo Alert: Inside Cocaine Submarines

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h/t The Coast Guard Compass

Inside Cocaine Submarines airs Sunday 10 pm on the National Geographic Channel:

Colombian drug traffickers are using a new secret weapon to smuggle cocaine north: drug submarines. Up to 100 feet long and nearly impossible to detect , they are capable of distributing several tons of coke in just one shipment. Dozens of subs are thought to be in operation between the coasts of Colombia and Mexico, and law enforcement estimates that another 70 will be built in the next year alone.

For additional photos, video, and more click here.