Category Archives: asymmetric warfare

It seems the best way to kill a UAV is…with a UAV

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With the explosive rise in the use of cheap battlefield unmanned systems in the past several years, ballistic options are now the chief countermeasure.

While this has seen a resurgence of love for such simple items as shotguns with specialized ammunition— Benelli is even marketing and reportedly selling a dedicated M4 A.I. Drone Guardian model as fast as they can crank them out– and a whole new breed of SPAAGs of every stripe, it seems that drone-on-drone aerial combat is, in many cases, the most effective answer.

Ukraine began to use “kamikaze” explosive-laden drones to combat Russian UAVs at the front in early 2024 and has even advanced to the point of having shotgun-carrying drones that swat Russian Mavics in mid-air and electronic warfare jammer FPVs that zap the connectivity of enemy drones.

Now, whole new generations of interceptor drones such as the 22-pound Sting and the gently larger Bullet have been developed by outfits such as the Ukrainian non-profit organization Wild Hornets.

Simple to make with off-the-shelf parts and 3D printing, they are being assembled at blistering rates for a cost estimated as low as $1,000 a pop and can reach speeds of over 195 mph, enabling them to chase down enemy drones at anything under 10,000 feet and give them the hard goodbye.

Ukraine claims that Sting alone has killed 900 drones just in the past couple of months. Sure, it is a 1:1 kill rate, if not worse, but as the Russians are spending a reported $30K a pop on Shahed (Gerad) attack drones, the Ukrainians have the clear advantage in that equation

The Ukrainian military PAO recently released this video of the counter-UAV det of the 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade “Magura” killing Russian Lancet loitering munitions, Private (STC Orlan-10) UAVs, along with Molniya and Shahed attack drones in the Sumy Region. It’s not subtitled, but no translation is needed.

It is estimated that as many as 250,000 drones are built, acquired, or imported per month in the conflict.

Billy Mitchell would eat his hat.

Bluejacket Cavalry!

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The first Navy ship named for the capital of the state of Maryland and the location of the U.S. Naval Academy, USS Annapolis (Gunboat No. 10), was laid down on 18 April 1896 at Elizabethport, New Jersey, by Lewis Nixon and commissioned at New York on 20 July 1897.

U.S. Navy gunboat, USS Annapolis (PG-10), port view. Detroit Publishing Company, 1890-1912. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Lot 3000-K-20

She was a class leader of gunboats with three sisters (Vicksburg, Newport, and Princeton) built during the transition period of the maritime world: sail to steam and wood to steel. They used a composite hull construction of steel keel and frames, steel shell plating from main deck to waterline, and wood planking with copper sheathing to the keel.

She was designed by RADM Phillip Hichborn, chief constructor of the Bureau of Construction and Repair, with RADM George Wallace Melville, chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering, designing her power plant– the latter a triple expansion reciprocating steam engine, better known as an “Up‐n‐Downer,” using steam supplied by two early water tube boilers at 180 psi.

The 203-foot steel-hulled barkentine-rigged three-masted steam gunboat carried a wallop in the form of six 4-inch breechloading guns, four QF 6-pounders, and two 1-pounders, plus, with a crew of 130 bluejackets, she could send a platoon-sized force ashore as light infantry (which we shall see) and still fight the ship. Best yet, she could float in just 13 feet of water, which allowed her to own a coastal littoral, when needed.

The 12-gun (6×4″, 4x6pdr, 2x1pdr) Composite gunboat USS Annapolis, 1895 plan NARA 19-N-12-17-4

Within a year, she was in service out of Key West enforcing the blockade on Cuba, helping to capture an enemy merchant ship and a British steamer with Spanish contraband. She also tag-teamed the Spanish gunboat Don Jorge Juan and sank same. She then sailed for the Far East and spent four years in those waters, primarily in the Philippine Islands.

Rebuilt at Mare Island from 1904-07, she would serve as the station ship in American Samoa until December 1911, when, returning to Mare Island, she was once again placed out of service.

Gunboat USS Annapolis off of San Francisco in 1912.

Then came a mission to Nicaragua, spending 11 months on a very muscular deployment to Central America, where her men logged one of the 136 instances of individual groups of bluejackets operating ashore as infantry (from squad to brigade level) between 1901 and May 1929. The spark that Annapolis was sent to contain was the coup d’état of General Luis Mena, Minister of War under President Alfonso Diaz, who thought he could do a better job than Diaz.

Amazingly, the gunboat landed a light company-sized force of Bluejackets, consisting of five officers and 90 men, under the command of LT James A. Campbell, Jr., U.S. Navy, at Corinto, which proceeded 90 miles by rail to Managua, Nicaragua, to serve as a legation guard and to protect American interests. They spent three months detached and were soon reinforced by other naval landing forces along with Major Smedly Butler’s Marine battalion, the latter consisting of 13 officers and 341 men. LCDR William Daniel Leahy (USNA 97), the battleship USS California’s gunnery officer, became the chief of staff of the expeditionary force and the commander of the small garrison at Corinto.

Expeditionary Force “Bluejackets” disembarking at Corinto, Nicaragua, from USS Annapolis (Patrol Gunboat #10), August 29, 1912. Collection of Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, Jr.

Expeditionary Force, “Bluejackets” at Leon, Nicaragua, from USS Annapolis (Patrol Gunboat #10), August 29, 1912. Collection of Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, Jr. NMUSN-P-D-2015-1-9

Expeditionary Force, “Bluejacket Calvary [sic]” at Corinto, Nicaragua, from USS Annapolis (Patrol Gunboat #10), August 29, 1912. Collection of Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, Jr. NMUSN-P-D-2015-1-11

“Insurrectos – Barricading Street, note the automatic, which seems to be a Vickers gun, at Corinto, Nicaragua, from USS Annapolis (Patrol Gunboat #10), August 29, 1912. Collection of Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, Jr.

As further detailed by DANFS:

Annapolis remained at Mare Island until recommissioned on 1 May 1912, Cmdr. Warren J. Terhune in command.

Sometime in May, the warship moved south to San Diego, whence she departed on the 21st and headed for the coast of Central America. She arrived off the coast of Nicaragua, at Corinto, on 13 June. Conditions in that Central American republic had been unstable throughout the first decade of the 20th century, but after 1910, became increasingly worse as three factions vied with each other for power. By the summer of 1912, General Estrada, more or less democratically elected under American auspices, had been forced out of office. His vice president, Adolfq Diaz, took over his duties, but by the end of July, full-scale civil war raged in Nicaragua. Annapolis returned to the Corinto area on 1 August following a six-week cruise along the coasts of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

The gunboat remained at Corinto for the following four months, periodically sending landing parties ashore to protect Americans’ lives and property and to restore order in areas where Americans were located. On 9 December, she departed Nicaraguan waters to return to San Francisco, where, after stops at Acajutla, El Salvador, and at San Diego, Calif., she arrived on 30 December. That same day, the warship entered the Mare Island Navy Yard for repairs.

She completed repairs late in January 1913 and returned to sea on the 20th. The gunboat made a 16-day stop at San Diego before resuming her voyage to Central American waters on 7 February. Annapolis arrived at Amapala, Honduras, on 17 February and remained there until 9 March. After a short cruise to the Gulf of Fonseca and to Petosi in Nicaragua on 9 and 10 March, she returned to Amapala on the 10th and remained there until 23 April.

Annapolis would spend the next several years poking around Mexican waters during the cyclical series of revolutions and civil wars between 1914 and 1918, after which she served in the American Patrol during the Great War.

Annapolis was placed out of commission at Mare Island in 1919, and the next year was towed via the Panama Canal to Philadelphia, where she was turned over to the Pennsylvania State Nautical School as a floating school ship, on a loan basis, for the next 20 years.

ex-USS Annapolis, Pennsylvania’s ‘schoolship’, as she looked in 1922 while anchored in the Delaware River

When WWII came, she was turned over to the Maritime Commission for disposal in 1940 and, in poor condition, was later scrapped.

By that time, a second Annapolis had joined the fleet.

But that is another story.

Romulus and Remus: Coming to a SAG near you?

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HII is pushing hard to get eyes on its new Romulus unmanned/minimally manned surface vessel concept, and for good reason, as it looks like it has potential as a “sea truck” that can act alongside a more conventional battle group to add more missiles, UAVs, and UUVs to the fight. The “high-endurance, 25+ knot” Romulus is 190 feet long and uses a commercial-standard hull “for durability and rapid production.” It has an advertised range of 2,500nm and can rearm/refuel at sea.

A large payload deck behind its superstructure has enough space for six 40-foot ISO shipping containers, which logically allows for six Typhon SMRF (Mk 70 Mod 1 Payload Delivery System) erector launchers, each of which can hold four Tomahawks or SM-6 missiles.

There is also enough open deck over the stern for a vertical launch drone system– a Shield AI MQ-35A V-BAT is depicted lifting off– as well as twin deployment cradles for HII’s Remus series UUVs. As the Navy is currently running an undisclosed number of Remus 100 (Mk 18 Swordfish) and at least 90 larger Remus 600 (Mk 18 Mod 2 Knifefish) models for UXO/EOD/MCM, this is not a stretch.

While shown as part of a carrier battle group, I think it could be interesting to pair up 2-3 of these with a Flight IIA/III DDG and perhaps a couple of Independence-class LCSs for extra helicopters as a surface action group.

With just 500~ bluejackets, you would have as many as six embarked MH-60s, room for a few vertical-launched drones, some decent UUV capability, a 5-inch gun, two 57s, 144-168 strike length VLS cells, three Sea RAMs, and potentially eight NSMs (on the Indies), as well as smaller weapons. Add to that three VBSS teams if on an interdiction mission.

That’s a lot of sea control at the fingertips of an O-5/O-6.

By the numbers, Port-au-Prince edition

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For eight weeks this summer, 15 women and 128 men– the first element of 700 of the new Haitian Armed Forces (FAD’H) — were subjected to basic military training at Mexico’s Regional Center for Individual Combat Training (CRCTI) in San Miguel de Los Jagüeyes, north of Mexico City, where they practiced personal defense and shooting and “learned about human rights.”

They arrived back home in late September.

Dressed in woodland BDUs with Haitian flag shoulder patches, they seem to have been “trained by the numbers” with donated Mexican HK G3s.

The training is part of an expanding defense collaboration under a 2018 agreement between Mexico and Haiti, with Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and France also conducting similar but in smaller 20-50 member courses.

The program is part of Haiti’s effort to rebuild its army, disbanded in 1995 by Aristide in an effort to consolidate control after deposing (with massive U.S. help) the military council of School of the Americas-trained Gen. Raoul Cedras that previously ran the country.

Revived in 2017 by now-slain President Moise, the FAd’H only numbers about 1,300 soldiers alongside 9,000~ thoroughly demoralized national police officers tasked with protecting nearly 12 million people. They are facing open street violence against an estimated 200 organized criminal gangs, with the country running 1,500 violent deaths per quarter.

In 1994, the lightly armed FAd’H numbered 41 companies (6,200 men) while the paramilitary Haitian Gendarme had 11 companies (1,000 men).

A 900-strong (of 2,500 pledged) Kenya-led Multinational Security Support Mission (MSSM) was deployed last year to help fight the gangs, but it has stalled and is to be replaced, with the U.S. shopping around its allies for a follow-on, theorized 5,500-strong force to pick up the pieces.

Volunteer countries have been scarce.

‘They told me you’d never load 8 missiles on an F-15E’

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The USAF recently released an amazing 36-minute doc, “Dangerous Game” about the 13 April 2024 overnight air-to-air swirling fight involving a squadron of F-16Cs (D.C. Air National Guard’s 113th Wing) and two of F-15Es (335th and 494th FS) vs 185 Shahed loitering munitions, followed by at least 30 cruise missiles, and 120 ballistic missiles.

“I can’t emphasize how dangerous this mission set is. At times, I’m 1,000 feet above the ground. Minsafe altitude was 4,000 feet. I am 3,000 feet below the altitude that is going to keep me alive because I can’t see the ground. There’s not enough ambient light.”

They even tried to get a hole-in-one shot on a moving drone with a LJDAM, as they were out of missiles, with the concept of hitting the ground ahead/around the low-flying UAV and knocking it out with the blossom.

Screaming across the desert to get back to base with all their ordnance expended, they wound up flying through a 360-degree hailstorm of Iranian ballistic missiles being launched ahead of them while IDF ABMs were reaching out and intercepting them in flight above them, leaving green flaming shrapnel to rain down on the F-15Es.

Then came 32-minute Integrated Combat Turnarounds (ICT) to get refueled and rearmed aircraft back in the fight– as Iranian missiles were inbound to their base.

It is well worth your time.

Remembering, Hannah

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We are amid the 250th anniversary of the service of one of the most criminally forgotten naval vessels in history, with a family tree that gives it the roots of the U.S. Navy.

The 104-foot 78-ton schooner, Hannah, was the first armed vessel to sail under Continental pay and control.

Acquired on August 24, 1775, she was originally owned by patriot merchant John Glover of Marblehead and named after his wife.

Her first skipper was Nicholson Broughton, a captain in the Army, while her 42-man crew was recruited from Glover’s Marblehead Regiment, which later became the 21st Massachusetts Regiment and the 14th Continental Regiment. These Marblehead men, sailors all, were described as “soldiers who have been bred to the sea.”

Her armament was just four four-pounders, as the Continental Army was cannon-poor in 1775.

She was utilized to aid General Washington in his siege of Boston by capturing British provision ships making for the harbor from British ports.

The incentive, in Washington’s orders to Broughton, was prize pay:

For your own Encouragement & that of the other Officers & Men to Activity & Courage in this Service, over & above your Pay in the continental Army you shall be entitled to one third Part of the Cargo of every Vessel by you taken & sent into Port (military & naval Stores only excepted, which with Vessels & apparel are reserved for the publick Service)—which sd third Part is to be divided among the Officers & Men in the followg Proportions:
  • Captain 6 Shares
  • 1st Lieutt 5 Do
  • 2d Lieutt 4 Do1
  • Ship’s master 3 Do
  • Steward 2 Do
  • Mate 1½
  • Gunner 1½
  • Boatswain 1½
  • Gunner’s Mate & Sergt 1½
  • Privates 1 Share each

Schooner Hannah. Caption: Painting by John F. Leavitt. The original painting was donated by Mr. Reynolds Girdler to USS Glover (AGDE 1). John Glover of Marblehead, Massachusetts, was the owner of Hannah, and she was “the first armed vessel fitted out in the service of the United States, 5-7 September 1775.” NH 51097-KN

Model of the schooner Hannah, the first ship commissioned by the authority of the Continental Congress, September 1775. NH 51098

She outran two British ships in a short action on 5 September, the chief of which was the 20-gun post ship HMS Lively.

“Continental Navy Schooner Hannah Evades British Ships” Caption: Depicting action off Cape Ann, Massachusetts on 5 September 1775, in which the Continental Navy schooner Hannah evaded two British ships of war. The Hannah, under the command of Captain Nicholson Broughton, was one of the three schooners built by General George Washington for the purpose of intercepting ships with British supplies headed for Boston. Published in Origin of the American Navy by Henry E. White. NH 56403

Her sole success was on 7 September, when Hannah captured the hoy (sail-powered barge) HMS Unity with a cargo of naval stores and provisions.

“Capture of British Supply Ship Unity” depicts the action off Cape Ann, Massachusetts, on 7 September 1775, in which the Continental Navy schooner Hannah, under the command of Captain Nicholson Broughton, captured the British supply ship Unity. It was the first capture made by a Continental Navy vessel. NH 56405

While sailing on a similar mission, she ran ashore on 10 October by the sloop HMS Nautilus near Beverly. Her charter rate had been $1.00 per ton per month, and she was in service for two months and 21 days, at a total cost of $208.06.

Saved from destruction and capture, Hannah was “soon decommissioned as Washington found more suitable ships for his cruisers,” notes DANFS.

Washington’s fleet would grow to six cruisers, and fly the famous, Appeal to Heaven “pine tree flag. Beverly would prove the site for outfitting the second, third, fourth, sixth, and eighth vessels in Washington’s fleet, several of which were outfitted by Glover.

Meanwhile, Capt. Broughton later became regarded as the first commodore of the United States Navy when he led two armed schooners, Hancock (sometimes seen incorrectly as Lynch) and Franklin, on a not very successful raid along the Nova Scotia coast in October 1775.

And of course, all this before the recognized birthday of the Navy, which is 13 October 1775, with the authorization by Congress of the Continental Navy.

Australia Goes $1.12B Hard in the Remote Minisub Paint

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Palmer Luckey’s California-based Anduril Industries has developed its Ghost Shark XLAUV (Extra-Large Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) autonomous submarine from rough draft to finished product in three years.

Scalable, it can be anywhere from 20 feet to 98 feet oal with the sweet spot being the 39-ish foot variant, with a square cross-section that can carry and deploy “dozens” of Copperhead-100 class UUVs (or Copperhead-100M loitering munitions) and “multiple” Copperhead-500 class UUVs (or Copperhead-500M loitering munitions), also developed by Anduril.

The Australian government spent A$140M on the program in 2022, and Anduril has invested another $60M in a “sophisticated, robotic XL-AUV manufacturing facility in Australia, where employees are at work to produce entirely sovereign autonomous maritime platforms.”

Now, the Australian MoD has announced an A$1.7B (US$1.12B) Program of Record to deliver a fleet of Ghost Sharks, with production already underway. The five-year contract will support around 120 existing jobs and create more than 150 new jobs at Anduril Australia.

As noted by the company:

The reason for the magnitude of risk-taking in this enterprise is clear: the Ghost Shark’s entry into full-rate production marks the start of a new era of seapower through maritime autonomy. For years, Australia has faced the persistent and threatening presence of Chinese naval assets in its home waters. Ghost Shark is the instantiation of a Program of Record for AUVs that can directly address this challenge through coastal defense patrols and area-wide domain awareness powered by artificial intelligence at scale. Success in this effort would be a landmark opportunity to demonstrate the potential of autonomous seapower to address clear and urgent national security problems.

Ghost Shark can fit inside a 40-foot shipping container, which in turn can fly out on a C-17 or similar. The RAAF flew a prototype to Hawaii for last year’s RIMPAC.

The following is from Anduril on how the Copperhead/Ghost Shark combo can draw a “line in the sea,” so to speak.

Sea denial, 21st Century style.

War Pigeons on the Marne

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110 years ago this week. 31 August 1915, along the Marne.

A French Brillié Schneider P3 model bus has been converted into a mobile pigeon coop (pigeonnier mobile) for the Army

Réf. : SPA 29 M 467. Albert Moreau/ECPAD/Défense

Pigeonnier militaire aménagé dans un bus Berliet à impériale

The French military’s use of pigeons for communication dates back to the War of 1870, after the Prussians besieged Paris, and citizens volunteered 300 of their birds.

The program reached its zenith during the Great War, with upwards of 30,000 pigeons used by the French alone.

Proving especially adept at avoiding “the Boche” during the country’s German occupation in WWII, the Resistance used another 16,500 SOE-supplied birds— which had been parachuted in as part of Operation Columbia! As the birds had been bred in England, once released by French underground cells, they quickly winged their way back home across the Channel to their coops, carrying brief but vital intel.

The French only officially ended their pigeon program in 1961 after the Algerian War.

However, since 2014, the 8th Signal Regiment (8e Régiment de Transmissions, 8e RT) has maintained a small in-house pigeon breeding program as a hedge on potential electromagnetic attacks that could disrupt other communication methods.

“La relève de nos pigeons voyageurs est assurée!”

Rube Goldberg Torpedo, Balikpapan edition

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Some 80 years ago this week.

Balikpapan, Borneo, then part of the newly liberated Dutch East Indies.

Unlike the six types/classes of Japanese Kaiten manned suicide torpedoes, the below seems more akin to the Kriegsmarine’s “Neger” attack craft, which amounted to an awash delivery torpedo carrying a coxswain instead of a warhead while a live G7e was clamped below it, albeit much more ersatz in nature.

Original historic wartime caption: “The Japanese 21-inch controlled torpedo. Usual procedure of the 21″ was as follows: Torpedos were stored in shelter; placed on rails launched into sea; wooden super-structure visible on torpedo was tied on with rope; operator rode torpedo within a striking distance of target; armed torpedo utilizing a rope; dropped axe on ropes binding super-structure torpedo and was cast free. 10 August 1945. (Two torpedoes were found, but there was no evidence of them ever being used in the area.)”

Note very excited sun-helmeted khaki-clad U.S. Navy lieutenant “riding” the torp while two Australian troops look on. US Air Force Reference Number: 63295AC (National Archives Identifier: 204953594)

Semper Paratus: Sandbox edition

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Today is the 235th anniversary of the circa 1790 founding of Alexander Hamilton’s old Revenue Cutter Service/Revenue Marine, which became today’s U.S. Coast Guard.

It is also the rough 35th anniversary of the beginning of the USCG’s continuing service in the Arabian and Persian Gulfs, which is about 6,700 miles as the crow flies from the continental U.S.

When Saddam crossed the line into Kuwait on 2 August 1990, the resulting Operation Desert Storm build-up in Saudi Arabia soon saw Coast Guard Marine Safety Offices (MSOs) activate personnel to inspect the nearly 80 Ready Reserve Fleet (RRF) vessels preparing for sea duty.

Soon after, four 10-man USCG LEDETs and a 7-man staff liaison team deployed to the Gulf to work from U.S. and allied vessels to inspect shipping.

USCG LEDET on a Turkish ship during Desert Shield

The first Iraqi ship impounded, Zanoobia, was on 4 September by a LEDET team from USS Goldsborough (DDG 20). Once the shooting started as Desert Shield became Desert Storm, LEDET personnel helped clear Iraqi oil platforms, securing 11 such platforms and aiding in the capture of 23 Iraqi prisoners, with one of the busiest being on the OHP-class frigate USS Nicholas (FFG-47).

Something like 60 percent of the 600 boardings carried out by U.S. forces were either led by or supported with the USCG LEDETs– which shows how busy those 40 guys were!

Further, 950 USCGR personnel were activated to support Desert Storm, with over half of those being in Port Security Units.

As noted by the USCG Historian’s Office:

  • On September 14th, PSU 303 (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) became the first Port Security Unit deployed overseas when it was assigned to Al Damman, Saudi Arabia.
  • On September 22nd, PSU 301 (Buffalo, New York) deployed to Al Jubayl, Saudi Arabia, and on November 14th, PSU 302 (Port Clinton, Ohio) deployed to Bahrain.
  • These PSUs featured the first Coast Guard women to serve in combat roles, including female machine gunners assigned to “Raider” tactical Port Security Unit boats.

The first allied craft into Kuwait’s Mina Ash Shuwaikh Harbor on 21 April 1991 was a Coast Guard Raider tactical port security boat from PSU 301, which gingerly led a procession of multinational vessels into the harbor.

Members of the U.S. Coast Guard Port Security Unit 302 patrol the harbor aboard a Navy harbor patrol boat during Operation Desert Shield.

Finally, to address the ecological nightmare that occurred once Saddam ordered scorched earth on the Kuwait oilfields during the liberation, on 13 February 1991, two USCG HU-25A Falcon jets, equipped with AIREYE side airborne looking radar (SILAR) and oil detection equipment, flew from Air Station Cape Cod to Saudi Arabia, supported by two Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules cargo aircraft from Air Station Clearwater packed with ground crew, spare aviation parts and support packages.

The Falcons were deployed for 84 days and mapped over 40,000 square miles of the Persian Gulf. They logged 427 flight hours in the region and maintained an aircraft readiness rate of over 96 percent. These flights provided daily updates on the size and direction of the spill.

Post Desert Storm, with LEDETs continuing work with the 5th Fleet Maritime Interception Force adjacent to Operation Southern Watch from 1992 onward, in November 2002, the all-USCG Patrol Forces Southwest Asia (PATFORSWA) was stood up with what would eventually become six 110-foot Island class cutters (USCGC Adak, Aquidneck, Baranof, Maui, Monomoy, and Wrangell).

Persian Gulf (April 27, 2005) – Coast Guardsmen aboard U.S Coast Guard Cutter Monomoy (WPB 1326) wave goodbye to the guided missile cruiser USS Antietam (CG 74) after the first underway fuel replenishment (UNREP) between a U.S. Navy cruiser and a U.S. Coast Guard Cutter. Antietam completed fuel replenishment with the Monomoy in about two hours and saved the 110-foot patrol boat a four-hour trip to the nearest refueling station. Antietam and Monomoy are conducting maritime security operations (MSO) in the Persian Gulf as part of Commander, Task Force Five Eight CTF-58). U.S. Navy photo by Journalist Seaman Joseph Ebalo (RELEASED)

7/25/2007. NORTH ARABIAN GULF-Petty Officer 3rd Class William J. Burke performs a security sweep aboard a tanker ship in the North Arabian Gulf. Burke, a machinery technician, is part of Law Enforcement Detachment 106, which is deployed in the NAG to help train Iraqi Navy and Marine personnel in boarding procedures and tactics. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Public Affairs Specialist 2nd Class Nathan Henise.

As it had in Operation Desert Storm, the Coast Guard deployed port security units, law enforcement detachments, and patrol boats to the Middle East to support Operation Iraqi Freedom and the Global War on Terrorism. Adak captured the first Iraqi maritime prisoners of the war, whose patrol boat had been destroyed upstream by an AC-130 gunship.

USCG small boat team conducting operations in the Gulf – 31 August 2022

In OIF, LEDETs deployed on Coast Guard and Navy patrol craft continued to board and inspect vessels in the Northern Arabian Gulf. As a member of one of these LEDETs, DC3 Nathan B. “Nate” Bruckenthal died when boarding an explosives-laden dhow that detonated near USS Firebolt (PC-10).

Today, PATFORSWA is still very much in business with six new 154-foot Fast Response Cutters (USCGC Charles Moulthrope, Robert Goldman, Glen Harris, Emlen Tunnell, John Scheuerman, and Clarence Sutphin Jr) replacing the old 110s in 2021-22.

220822-A-KS490-1182 STRAIT OF HORMUZ (Aug. 22, 2022) From the left, U.S. Coast Guard fast response cutters USCGC Glen Harris (WPC 1144), USCGC John Scheuerman (WPC 1146), USCGC Emlen Tunnell (WPC 1145) and USCGC Clarence Sutphin Jr. (WPC 1147) transit the Strait of Hormuz, Aug. 22. The cutters are forward-deployed to U.S. 5th Fleet to help ensure maritime security and stability across the Middle East. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Noah Martin)

With some 300 personnel assigned, it is the largest Coast Guard command outside of the U.S.

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