While the Navy still maintains four government-run public Naval Shipyards (Norfolk, Portsmouth, Puget Sound, and Pearl), an often forgotten gem in its smaller sister service, the Coast Guard, is the U.S. Coast Guard Yard. Located on just 22 acres of waterfront along Maryland’s Curtis Bay just south of the Baltimore city limits, the little yard that could is the Service’s sole shipbuilding and major repair facility, and has held that title since 1899. The USCGY, besides a longstanding tradition of performing overhauls and SLEPs on the service’s aging cutters (including assets going back to the 1940s), is the last American supporter of MK 75 76mm guns.
The ship lift is full to expanded capacity thanks to the $26M Shiplift Expansion Project that added a third rail system. You even get a different perspective of the 87-foot Patrol Boats being crane-lifted!
Note the gray hulls to the left, likely 87-foot WPBs getting ready to be transferred to an overseas ally as aid. At least five other white hull WPBs are further up on the left corner. Two buoy tenders are to the left along with another 87 while the barque Eagle and a 270-foot cutter are in dry dock ashore with a 110-foot Island class WPB ahead of them
Check out the 87 foot Maritime Protector patrol boat (WPB) being lifted. The 87-foot Recurring Depot Availability Program (RDAP) project is a four-year recurring maintenance cycle for the Coast Guard’s entire Atlantic Area 87-foot coastal patrol boat fleet (47 vessels). Each cutter is at the Yard for a 66-day planned maintenance period. Crews arrive with a “used” 87-foot patrol boat and pick up a freshly overhauled patrol boat from the Yard, which they immediately sail back to their homeport.
America’s tall ship, USCGC Eagle, alongside a 270-foot Bear class cutter undergoing SLEP. Note that the 270’s hangar is extended
Eagle, the 270 and 110-foot Island-class WPB in the foreground
The USCGC Alert (WMEC 630) is the newest of her class of 210-foot Reliance-class gunboats (WPG/WPC), her keel laid down in 1968 at the Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay. Commissioned 4 August 1969– the service’s 179th birthday– and is the 8th such cutter to bear the name going back to 1818.
Alert shortly after her commissioning in 1969. Note her single manually-operated 3″/50 Mark 22 mount, the last one installed on a U.S. warship. At the time, the Navy had already switched to the more modern radar-guided 3″/50RF Marks 27, 33, and 34; along with the 3″/70RF Mark 37, and would ditch those in the 1970s in favor of unmanned CIWS and MK75 76mm OTO Melera mounts. USCG Image: 170531-G-XX000-321
1973 Jane’s listing
Rebuilt in 1993-94 during a Mid-life Maintenance Availability (MMA) to give her a newer set of engines, generators, commo, and nav gear, Alert would also land her 3″/50 in favor of a much smaller (but still manually-operated) MK 38 25mm cannon. As the MMA was to extend her life for 15 years, she was later given a 9-month Medium Endurance Cutter Maintenance Extension Project (MEP) in 2009.
Now, some 53 years after she first joined the fleet, the humble little cutter, based since 1994 in Astoria, Oregon, is still getting it done. She just returned from a 68-day, 13,700-mile deployment, that saw her stretch her legs down from the PacNorthWest to the Panama Canal.
The Coast Guard Cutter Alert (WMEC 630) conducts an engagement coincidental to operations with members of the Guatemalan Navy on August 23, 2022, five miles south of Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala. The engagement to strengthen law enforcement and search and rescue capabilities with our partners in Guatemala included joint pursuit training with two Guatemalan small boats and a search-and-rescue exercise with the Guatemalan vessels Kukulkan and the Kaibil Balam. Photo by Chief Petty Officer Matthew Masaschi
Same as the above, Photo by Chief Petty Officer Matthew Masaschi. The images were likely snapped from her embarked MH-65 Dolphin
As noted by USCG Pacific Area:
While in theater, Alert’s crew boarded three Costa Rican fishing vessels and successfully removed 1,440 pounds of marijuana valued at $1.4 million. Furthermore, during the boarding of the fishing vessel Mujer Gitana, Alert’s crew detected and articulated numerous factors of reasonable suspicion allowing Costa Rica to issue a return to port order. Costa Rican Law Enforcement officials searched the vessel and located a hidden compartment under a reversible steel hydraulic door system, a smuggling technique that reportedly has never been seen before on a Costa Rican vessel. The search resulted in the seizure of 729 kilograms of cocaine worth $21.1 million, and the apprehension of seven detainees by one of our top-priority partner nations.
Additionally, the Alert crew led a multinational training engagement with the Guatemalan Navy, conducted three joint boardings with the Costa Rican Coast Guard, and responded to one search and rescue case involving an American fisherman off the coast of Baja California.
The embarked helicopter aircrew flew more than 50 hours over 16 days, and searched thousands of miles over the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
The service’s 9th USCGC Alert, a brand-new 360-foot offshore patrol cutter (OPC) was announced in 2017 but likely won’t join the fleet for another decade, leaving the current one likely to keep on sailing into her 60s.
We’ve talked about the National Security Multi-Mission Vessel (NSMV) several times over the past decade and are happy to report that the first two (of six) are under construction– with one even in the water.
NSMV?
Yup, as you may know, in addition to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, the Maritime Administration supports several four-year schools that produce sea-going merchant and USCGR/USNR officers. These six schools include the California State University Maritime Academy, Maine Maritime Academy, Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Great Lakes Maritime Academy, Texas A&M Maritime Academy, and the State University of New York Maritime College.
However, these schools have long used second- (or third- or fourth-) hand seagoing vessels that in some cases date back to the 1960s and do not reflect any modern U.S.-flagged merchant vessel afloat.
Well, the NSMV looks to fix that with a standard type that five of the six (all but Great Lakes) maritime schools can use to mint new merchie and reserve officers, trained on something a little more contemporary.
While designed as a peacetime training ship with a 100-member crew and space for up to 600 cadets, the vessels would also be equipped for disaster relief or wartime use as a troopship.
They have a Roll-on/Roll-off side ramp, container space and cranes, modern engineering (integrated electric drive propulsion system, similar to cruise ships worldwide) and communications suites, an MH-60-rated helipad, as well as the ability to house as many as 1,000 in a pinch and the ability to enter small coastal ports due to a shallow (under 25 foot) maximum draft– with thrusters able to dock without tug support.
That’s a high superstructure but the NSMV can accommodate up to 1,000, making it a sort of cross between a budget cruise ship and a RO/RO merchant
They have their own cargo handling facilities and a RO/RO sideramp. They have a RoRo space aft with a length of about 40 m (130 ft), a width inside framing of 24 m (80 ft), and clear height of at least 4.7 m (15.3 ft). The usable deck area is about 1,000 sq. m. (10,700 sq. ft.). Suitable for about 10 x 40 ft trailers with 26 autos or about 49 autos/light trucks. The total container capacity is about 64 TEU for two highs, provided the helipad is not in use.
And a helipad that is optimized for MH-60 types
Specs:
Length o.a.: 524.5 ft. Beam: 88.6 ft. Draft: 21.4 ft. Design service speed: 18 knots/15% sea margin Cruising Speed: 12 knots Propulsion: Diesel Electric Propulsion engines: 4 x Diesel Generators Total installed Power: 15,680 kW Propellers: 1 propeller, fixed pitch Rudders: 1 flap type rudder on centerline Fuel: Single fuel – marine gas oil (MGO), max Sulfur content 0.1% Bow Thruster: retractable combi type – tunnel thruster in up position, azimuthing thruster in down position, “Take Home” source of power, 1450 kW Stern Thruster: Tunnel type, 890 kW Fuel Consumption: 60 tons/day @ 18 knots, 26 tons/day at 12 knots Fresh Water (including sanitary water): 35 gal/day per person for 700 = 93 tons + 5 tons Ship Service FW = 98 tons/day Fuel range: About 11,000 nm range @ 18 knots design speed with 10% remaining fuel Food & Stores: 60 days food storage for 700 persons, 297 sq. m. (3,200 sq. ft.) reefer provisions, 240 sq. m. (2,580 sq. ft.) dry provisions Propulsion motors: 2 x 4,500 kW propulsion motors. Motors in separate watertight compartments.
The best news on this is that the first ship of the class, the SUNY Maritime College’s newly built Empire State VII, was launched at Philly Shipyard two weeks ago.Empire State will be completed and delivered to SUNY Maritime College in 2023.
On a solo mission, the one-of-a-kind medium icebreaker USCGC Healy (WAGB 20) reached the North Pole last week after traversing the frozen Arctic Ocean, marking only the second time a U.S. ship has reached the location unaccompanied, the first being Healy in 2015.
Healy departed Dutch Harbor, Alaska on 4 September for a months-long, multi-mission deployment with the intention to reach latitude 90 degrees North in support of oceanographic research in collaboration with National Science Foundation-funded scientists throughout their transit to the North Pole and recently helped keep tabs on a Sino-Russian surface action group that was poking around the Aleutians– the latter a sort of empty gesture as the icebreaker is unarmed.
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy (WAGB 20) cuts a channel through the multi-year pack ice and snow as Healy transits the Arctic Ocean to the North Pole, September 27, 2022. This is the third time the icebreaker has traveled to the North Pole since its commissioning in 1999 and the second time she has reacehed the pole unescorted. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Deborah Heldt Cordone, Auxiliary Public Affairs Specialist 1.
Capt. Kenneth Boda, commanding officer of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy (WAGB 20), monitors the passage of the cutter as the crew approaches the North Pole, Sept. 30, 2022. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Deborah Heldt Cordone, Auxiliary Public Affairs Specialist 1.
The U.S. Coast Guard Healy (WAGB-20) transits through multi-year pack ice in the Arctic Ocean as the cutter approaches the North Pole, Sept. 27, 2022. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Deborah Heldt Cordone, Auxiliary Public Affairs Specialist 1.
More details from USCG HQ:
“The crew of Healy is proud to reach the North Pole,” said Capt. Kenneth Boda, commanding officer of the Healy. “This rare opportunity is a highlight of our Coast Guard careers. We are honored to demonstrate Arctic operational capability and facilitate the study of this strategically important and rapidly changing region.”
Healy, which departed its Seattle homeport on July 11, currently has thirty-four scientists and technicians from multiple universities and institutions aboard, and nearly 100 active duty crew members.
During the cutter’s first Arctic leg of the patrol throughout July and August, Healy traveled into the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, going as far north as 78 degrees. As a part of the Office of Naval Research’s Arctic Mobile Observing System program, Healy deployed underwater sensors, sea gliders and acoustic buoys to study Arctic hydrodynamics in the marginal and pack ice zones.
In addition to enabling Arctic science, Healy also supported U.S. national security objectives for the Arctic region by projecting a persistent ice-capable U.S. presence in U.S. Arctic waters, and patrolling our maritime border with Russia.
On their second Arctic mission of the summer, while transiting to the North Pole, Healy embarked a team of researchers as a part of the Synoptic Arctic Survey (SAS). SAS is an international collaborative research program focused on using specially equipped research vessels from around the world to gather data throughout the Arctic across multiple scientific disciplines. Dr. Carin Ashjian, from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, is currently serving alongside Dr. Jackie Grebmeier as co-chief Scientists onboard Healy with support from the National Science Foundation.
“We are excited to reach the Pole!” said Ashjian speaking on behalf of the embarked science party. “We have little information from the ocean and seafloor at the top of the world so what we collect here is very valuable. It also fills in data from a region, the western Central Arctic, which was not sampled by other ships in the SAS. Our joint efforts with the Healy crew are producing important science results.”
After deploying a series of scientific equipment to collect valuable data at the North Pole, crew members and the science team were granted ice liberty. During this time, they enjoyed taking pictures and posing with a “North Pole” that had been erected on the ice. Healy also used the unique setting to advance two crewmembers and conduct a cutterman ceremony for three crewmembers who each recently achieved the career milestone of five years of sea service.
OPCs
We’ve talked about the 25-ship Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC) program of record several times in the past few years and it is one of the most exciting shipbuilding initiatives for the American maritime service. Intended to complement the capabilities of the service’s 418-foot frigate-sized National Security Cutters, growing flotillas of 154-foot Fast Response Cutters, and planned (armed) Polar Security Cutters “as an essential element of the Department of Homeland Security’s layered maritime security strategy.”
The OPCs will replace the 12 remaining 1960s-built 210-foot Reliance-class and 13 1980s-built 270-foot Bear-class cutters, on a hull-per-hull basis, with a larger and much more capable class of large OPVs or “surveillance frigates” that can likely still serve in lots of constabulary roles around the world, freeing up Navy destroyers for more combat-oriented tasks.
OPC Characteristics: •Length: 360 feet •Beam: 54 feet •Draft: 17 feet •Sustained Speed: 22 Plus knots •Range: 8500 Plus nautical miles •Endurance: 60 Days
The main armament is a Mk 110 57mm gun forward with a MK 38 Mod 3 25mm gun over the stern HH60-sized hangar, and four M2 .50 cal mounts.
I say replace the Mk38 with a C-RAM, shoehorn a towed sonar, ASW tubes, an 8-pack Mk41 VLS crammed with Sea Sparrows, and eight NSSMs aboard and call it a day. The Mexicans do the same loadout with the new Reformador-class frigates on a hull the same size, so why not us?
The first flight of 11 OPCs has been awarded to Eastern Shipbuilding Group, Inc. (ESG) and they have a quartet– class leader USCGC Argus (WMSM 915), followed by USCGC Chase (WMSM 916), USCGC Ingham (WMSM 917) and USCGC Rush (WMSM 918)— in various stages of completion already at their Nelson Street facility in Panama City.
Well, the Coast Guard, in an effort to get all 25+ of these hulls completed ASAP, announced earlier this year that a second yard, Austal in Mobile, Alabama, would get to work on the second flight of 11 OPCs, a contract estimated at being worth $3 billion smackers (which is a deal these days for 11 American frigate-sized OPVs).
The latter just got a lot closer to getting real as ESG removed their protest over the award.
As noted by the Coast Guard on Wednesday:
The Coast Guard today issued a notice to Austal USA, the offshore patrol cutter (OPC) Stage 2 contractor, to proceed on detail design work to support future production of OPCs. The Coast Guard issued the notice following the withdrawal of an award protest filed in July with the Government Accountability Office by an unsuccessful Stage 2 offeror.
The Coast Guard on June 30, 2022, awarded a fixed-price incentive (firm target) contract through a full and open competition to Austal USA to produce up to 11 offshore patrol cutters. The initial award is valued at $208.26 million and supports detail design and long lead-time material for the fifth OPC, with options for production of up to 11 OPCs in total. The contract has a potential value of up to $3.33 billion if all options are exercised.
The Coast Guard’s requirements for OPC Stage 2 detail design and production were developed to maintain commonality with earlier OPCs in critical areas such as the hull and propulsion systems, but provide flexibility to propose and implement new design elements that benefit lifecycle cost, production and operational efficiency and performance.
Originally intended as a 50-vessel class of patrol boats (WPBs) meant to replace the Vietnam-era 82-foot Point class vessels in Coast Guard service, the 87-foot Marine Protector class started to hit the water in 1998 at a cost of about $5 million a pop. Derived from the Dutch Damen Stan 2600 design and cranked out by Bollinger, the Coast Guard kept hitting the “buy more” button on these until a whopping 74 were completed, including four paid for by the Navy and used to escort Boomers in and out of domestic homeports (notably, the latter all have hybrid submarine names– Sea Devil, Sea Fox, Sea Dragon, and Sea Dog— saluting WWII fleet boats).
Economical, they cost about $3,200 an hour to operate and can stay deployed for up to a week at a time, stretching their legs up to 200 miles offshore if needed.
A close-up of USCGC Moray (WPB-87331) and USCGC Tiger Shark (WPB-87359), taken by me at Gulfport harbor.
I featured one of these great boats as a character in my zombie novel, having shipped out on one on a day patrol out of Gulfport for research.
The Coast Guard even has an innovative maintenance schedule for the 87s on the East/Gulf coasts to keep the in top shape. The Recurring Depot Availability Program (RDAP) project is a four-year recurring maintenance cycle for the Coast Guard’s entire Atlantic Area 47-boat coastal patrol boat fleet in which each cutter is at the Yard for a 66-day planned maintenance period. Crews arrive with a “used” 87-foot patrol boat and pick up a freshly overhauled patrol boat from the Yard, which they immediately sail back to their homeport.
Well, as the class ages and the USCG finds itself flush with new and much more capable 154-foot Sentinel-type Fast Response Cutters, the service is trimming high-mileage 87s. Thus far, eight have been withdrawn from service and they will no doubt see much further use in Third World service.
Case in point, the Coast Guard Yard recently completed a $1.3 million overhaul of three such long-serving Protectors that were transferred to Uruguay as part of the USCG Foreign Military Sales Program. The 11-month program included partial rebuilds and training Uruguayan Navy crews, which took final possession last month to sail the trio to new climes in Montevideo.
The program saw the ex-USCGC Albacore (WPB-87309), ex-USCGC Cochito (WPB-87329), and ex-USCGC Gannet (WPB-87334) slowly become the ROU-14 Río Arapey, ROU-15 Río de La Plata, and ROU-16 Río Yaguarón.
They sortied out as a group in late September from Baltimore, escorted by an active USCG member of their class.
And their last U.S. stop was at USCG Station Key West just before Hurricane Ian came ashore.
The Coast Guard Historian’s Office has the 316-page CG-260 manual of organizations and regs for 378-foot high endurance cutters, dated January 1973, digitized online.
USCGC Morgenthau (WHEC-722), a 378-foot high endurance cutter, by John Wisinski
Covering the dozen Hamilton-class cutters, it makes interesting reading, especially for those interested in Cold War/Vietnam-era Coastie and by extension Naval lore.
I found the Landing and VBSS (Visit, board, search, and seizure) bills particularly interesting.
They include a two-squad 27-man Landing team, a 6-man Visit/Search team, a 31-man Boarding and Capture team, and a 27-man Prize Crew with the number of pistols (at the time M1911s) and rifles/SMGs (M1 Garands and M1 Thompsons) listed.
The Hamiltons would, in the 1980s, upgrade their WWII-era small arms lockers to M9s and M16A2s while ditching their 5″/38 main battery for a MK 75 76mm OTO. Also gone were the 26-foot whaleboats in lieu of RHIBs.
And don’t scream about OPSEC, as all this stuff is a few generations outdated.
The Coast Guard, flush with capable new vessels, has been steadily stretching its legs as of late, taking up the Navy’s slack a bit, and waving the flag increasingly in overseas locations. This new trend makes sense as, besides the formal People’s Liberation Army Navy, the growing (200 white hulled cutters) China Coast Guard and People’s Armed Forces Maritime Militia (4,600 blue hulled trawlers) are everywhere.
Case in point, this week the USCG’s 17th District, which covers Alaska, announced the USCGC Kimball (WMSL-756), while on a routine patrol in the Bering Sea, encountered the 13,000-ton Chinese Type 055 “destroyer” (NATO/OSD Renhai-class cruiser) Renhai (CG 101), sailing approximately 75 nautical miles north of Kiska Island. A state-of-the-art vessel comparable to a Ticonderoga-class cruiser but larger, Renhai has a 112-cell VLS system as well as two helicopters and a 130mm naval gun. Compare this to Kimball’s single 57mm MK110 and CIWS, and you see the disparity.
A Coast Guard Cutter Kimball crewmember observing a foreign vessel in the Bering Sea, September 19, 2022. (USCG Photo)
Kimball also noted other ships as well.
Via 17th District:
The Kimball crew later identified two more Chinese naval vessels and four Russian naval vessels, including a Russian Federation Navy destroyer, all in a single formation with the Renhai as a combined surface action group operating in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
As a result, the Kimball crew is now operating under Operation Frontier Sentinel, a Seventeenth Coast Guard District operation designed to meet presence with presence when strategic competitors operate in and around U.S. waters. The U.S Coast Guard’s presence strengthens the international rules-based order and promotes the conduct of operations in a manner that follows international norms. While the surface action group was temporary in nature, and Kimball observed it disperse, the Kimball will continue to monitor activities in the U.S. EEZ to ensure the safety of U.S. vessels and international commerce in the area. A Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak C-130 Hercules aircrew provided support to the Kimball’s Operation Frontier Sentinel activities.
Kimball’s sister, the Hawaii-based USCGC Midgett (WMSL 757) and crew, on a Westpac patrol under the tactical control of 7th Fleet, arrived in the Maldives last week, the first Coast Guard ship to visit the 1,200-island Indian Ocean country since USCGC Boutwell in 2009.
The class of large (418-foot/4,500-ton) frigate-sized cutters have done numerous Westpac cruises in the past few years. Since 2019, the cutters Bertholf (WMSL 750), Stratton (WMSL 752), Waesche (WMSL 751), and Munro (WMSL 755) have deployed to the Western Pacific.
The 20-member crew, augmented by two Guam-based shoreside Coasties (a YN2 and an MK2) two Navy rates (an HS2 and HM3), and a Marine Korean linguist, conducted training, fisheries observations, community and key leader engagements, and a multilateral sail.
How about that blended blue and green crew? “The crew of the Sentinel-class fast response cutter USCGC Oliver Henry (WPC 1140) takes a moment for a photo in Cairns, Australia, Sept. 5, 2022. The U.S. Coast Guard is conducting a routine deployment in Oceania as part of Operation Blue Pacific, working alongside Allies, building maritime domain awareness, and sharing best practices with partner nation navies and coast guards. Op Blue Pacific is an overarching multi-mission U.S. Coast Guard endeavor promoting security, safety, sovereignty, and economic prosperity in Oceania while strengthening relationships with our regional partners.” (U.S. Coast Guard photo Petty Officer 2nd Class Sean Ray Blas)
The two ships were also– and this is key– refused a port visit in the Solomans which is now under a treaty with China that allows PLAN ships to refuel in Honiara. The local government there later clarified that not all foreign military ships were off limits to their ports, as Australia and New Zealand will be exempt (both countries have significant economic ties with the island nation) but it is still a bad look. Of irony, Spey and Oliver Henry were conducting an Operation Island Chief mission in the region, policing illegal fishing of the kind China is noted for.
The Coast Guard currently has three new FRCs in Guam including Henry, Myrtle Hazard (WPC 1139), and Frederick Hatch (1143), giving them options in the Westpac.
Built in the 1980s and akin to a patrol frigate/destroyer escort of old, these 13 cutters are downright elderly by modern surface warfare escort comparisons. While they are of the same vintage as the remaining Ticonderoga class cruisers (which the Navy is shedding as quickly as Congress will allow), their contemporaries in terms of “little boys” in naval service, the FFG-7 class, have long ago faded away.
In fact, the Bears have been living on lots of parts cannibalized from old frigates that were stripped away before being expended in SINKEXs– the class is the last American user of the MK75 OTO Melara 76mm gun system and its associated “boiled egg” MK92 GFCS components.
The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Northland conducts a live firing of the MK 75 76mm weapons system while underway, September 20, 2020, in the Atlantic Ocean. The cutter returned to its homeport of Portsmouth, Virginia, Wednesday after a 47-day patrol conducting counter-drug and migrant interdiction operations in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. (U.S. Coast Guard courtesy photo)
One of their Cold War selling points was that they could be cheap ASW vessels in time of war, fitted with Light Airborne Multipurpose System III (LAMPS III) integration and the ability to carry a TACTAS towed passive sonar array and a set of Mk32 sub-busting torpedo tubes. It was also planned to fit them with CIWS and Harpoon somehow. Coupled with the cutter’s refueling-at-sea rig, SLQ-32 electronic support measures (the first such fit on a cutter), SRBOC countermeasures, and main battery, they promised a lot of interoperability with the Fleet if Red Storm Rising ever kicked off and were leaps and bounds ahead of the cutters they replaced– the old circa 1930s 327-foot Treasury class of WWII fame and converted fleet tugs.
Bear-class Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba (WMEC-907) leads the formation of International Maritime Forces at UNITAS LVIII in Callao, Peru, Wednesday, July 19, 2017.
Well, the Bears never did get their ASW teeth, or Harpoon, or CIWS, but they do still have a Slick 32 and its 75mm gun and the ability to carry a lightly-armed (machine gun and .50 cal anti-material rifle) Coast Guard MH-65 helicopter– and do still practice Convoy Escort missions on occasion!
Class leader USCGC Bear (WMEC 901) returned to her homeport in Portsmouth Tuesday, after a 74-day patrol in the northern regions of the Atlantic Ocean.
During the deployment, Bear “sailed more than 10,000 nautical miles while simultaneously working in tandem with allied and partner nations as a part of the naval convoy in Operation Nanook, a signature military exercise coordinated by the Canadian Armed Forces.”
Included in the image is HMCS Margaret Brooke, Bear, French support ship Rhone, Her Danish Majesty’s Ship (HDMS) frigate Triton, HMCS Goose Bay, and Canadian Coast Guard Ship (CCGS) Leonard J. Cowley. Bear is in the top right corner.
Operation Nanook 22 USCGC Bear (WMEC 901) with RCN French and Danish forces (RCN photo)
For approximately two weeks, American, Canadian, Danish and French forces navigated the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean performing multiple training evolutions that included search-and-rescue, close-quarters maneuvering, fleet steaming and gunnery exercises. Additionally, personnel from Maritime Security Response Team East, a specialized Coast Guard law enforcement unit, embedded with Bear to exercise their capabilities and assist with enhancing the training curriculums for other nations.
Bear also completed a living marine resource enforcement patrol for commercial fishing vessels as part of the North Atlantic Fisheries Organization, ensuring compliance with federal regulations while safeguarding natural resources.
Meanwhile, her sister, USCGC Legare (WMEC 912), just returned to her homeport Wednesday, after an 11-week counter-narcotics deployment that included key partner nation engagements and search and rescue operations throughout the Eastern Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
Legare patrolled more than 15,000 nautical miles in support of Joint Interagency Task Force South and the Seventh and Eleventh Coast Guard Districts, working in conjunction with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, and federal agents from throughout the U.S., the Royal Netherlands Navy, and partner nation coast guards in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean.
During the patrol, Legare successfully interdicted four smuggling vessels, including one specially designed low-profile craft, and seized more than 7,000 pounds of illicit narcotics, valued at approximately $67 million. The crew also offloaded approximately 24,700 pounds of cocaine and 3,892 pounds of marijuana, worth an estimated $475 million, at Base Miami Beach Sept. 15, 2022.
Crew members assigned to USCGC Legare (WMEC 912) interdict a low-profile vessel in the Eastern Pacific Ocean in July 2022. Legare’s crew returned to Portsmouth Wednesday, following an 11-week deployment in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea in support of the Coast Guard’s Eleventh and Seventh Districts and Joint Interagency Task Force South. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Lt. Andrew Bogdan)
One big result from the end of the Cold War in 1989ish and the subsequent onset of the “peace dividend” in the early 1990s was that the near-600 ship U.S. Navy was drastically drawn down. While the carriers, dropping from 15 to 10, and the mothballing then disposal of the four Iowa class battleships got the most attention, it should also be remembered that via the “Great Cruiser Slaughter” and the untimely demise of the Sprucans saw 57 cruisers and destroyers vanish from the Navy List followed by the 23 Adams-class (all decommissioned in just a 33-month period) and 4 Kidd-class DDGs, and the 40 Knox-class fast frigates which killed off the tin cans.
But one interesting class I am here to bemoan is the loss of the Garcias, the 10-pack of fast frigates that preceded the Knoxes.
Garcia class frigate USS Voge (FF-1047) underway as part of Task Group 24.2 with the carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) battle group, 12 Aug 1988 just a year before she was retired. Note the two 5-inch mounts, the ASROC launcher, and a good bit of open deck space. DOD 330-CFD-DN-ST-89-01279, National Archives Identifier:6442941
Built in the 1960s as some of the last of the destroyer escorts, they were kind of easy to forget. Just 414 feet overall with a 2,600-ton displacement, they used a simple steam plant of two boilers feeding a single steam turbine and a centerline screw, giving them a top speed of 27 knots but the ability to cruise at 20 for 4,000nm– making them perfect for wartime cross-Atlantic convoy escort.
USS Garcia (DE-1040, later FF-1040) underway, in August 1972. NHHC K-95195
The significant size of the sonar dome can be seen from this image of Voge in dry-dock.
They had a decent ASW fit including a bow-mounted sonar, a platform for an SH-2 Seaprite, both Mk32 (side-launched) and Mk25 (stern launched) torpedo tubes, and an 8-cell ASROC “Matchbox” launcher with eight reloads. For surface action, they had a pair of WWII/Korean War throwback 5″/38s in Mk 30 mounts as well as the possibility to use Harpoons in the ASROC launcher.
While they were dead meat against an incoming airstrike, at least one ship, USS Bradley (DE-1041), had a RIM-7 Sea Sparrow BPDMS installed while keeping the rest of the armament fit. All this with a 250-man crew. Indeed, the first six FFGs (originally DEGs), the Brooke class, were essentially just Garcias that had been equipped with an Mk-22 “one-armed bandit” launcher amidships with a 16-slot magazine.
Garcia class frigate by Christian Capurro
USS Brooke, seen here in Florida waters, was the first of a half-dozen Brooke class-guided missile frigates (FFG 1-6). They were designated as they were fitted with the Mk 22 missile launcher for the Standard anti-aircraft missile, located on top of the superstructure amidships. in place of the 5″/38 Mk30 mount and magazine
Garcia 2022
Imagine for a moment that an updated Garcia were to be fielded today.
The same-sized hull is already made in America, the Legend/Berthoff-class national security cutter (NSC).
Built at Pascagoula, the 4,500-ton Stratton is the USCG’s the third Legend-class National Security Cutter
The centerpiece of the Coast Guard’s fleet (which runs 418 feet oal and weighs in at 4,500 tons) the NSC has a CODAG engineering suite of MTU 20V 1163 diesels and a single LM2500 gas turbine that is capable of “over 28 knots” with a 12,000nm cruising range while needing fewer sailors to keep it running than a Garcia of old. Add a modern MK45 5″/62 up front, shoehorn a second 5-incher amidships– the mounts weigh almost the same as the old Mk 30s on the Garcias while having a much more capable gun. Insert an 8-cell of strike length VLS for VLA-ASROC, another 8-cell short VLS for quad-packed Enhanced Sea Sparrows for air defense, and swap out the NSC’s current CIWS for a 21-cell RAM launcher. The NSC already has a sonar fit, which could be expanded, as well as a huge (for its size) hangar and stern pad. Instead of the stern-launched 31-foot cutter boat, install a towed sonar array and an eight-pack of Naval Strike Missiles similar to the stern Harpoon cans seen on the Ticonderogas.
They would be a great “low” part of a “high/low” frigate mix when balanced against the building Constellation-class FFGs.
While the Constellations are direly needed, there is still a huge gap left in the FF arena that was created when the Knoxes and Garcias left. Further, once the 21 remaining Ticos are retired, that is a further 42 5-inch guns that will disappear from the fleet without any real replacement (the Constellation has a 57mm gun while the Burkes aren’t realistically going to get close enough to shore for NGFS any more than the Ticos would have.)
While great for busting smugglers and policing duties, the NSCs are armed akin to an LCS…
NSCs have an estimated average procurement cost of about $950 million per ship as it is, and you could imagine a 20 percent increase with the redesign and new weapon fit, putting such a program in the range of about $1.3B per hull, which is about the same as the larger Constellations. However, you get two 5-inch guns and a focus on killing subs whereas the multi-mission nature of the Constellations means they will be much like the old Perry-class FFGs they replaced and lean towards a more anti-air frigate concept– and will take several years to get in the water and the bugs worked out.
Contrast this with the fact that the NSCs have been under construction for 15 years and Ingalls has kind of gotten it figured out, plus, they have used the hull for a series of proposed LCS and Patrol Frigate designs they have pitched around the world, so they likely already have a lot of the backend design work brainstormed for an up-armed NSC already.
Ingalls Shipbuilding Sea Control Frigate based on National security cutter
Ingalls Shipbuilding Sea Control Frigate based on National security cutter
A 20-30 ship class of “Garcia’d” NSCs in haze gray, matching the Constellations hull-for-hull, would go a long way towards making the Navy whole, and would be an easy export option for allies seeking a similar ASW/AShW optimized fast frigate.
The Coast Guard’s very successful Fast Response Cutter (FRC) program, the 154-foot Sentinel-class patrol craft, just keeps ticking along, with lots of important milestones this month. It makes you wish the Navy could get on board with a similar shipbuilding impetus.
50th Delivered
Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, Louisiana– builder of the 110-foot Island-class and 87-foot Maritime Protector class patrol boats for the Coast Guard going back some 35 years– on 4 August delivered their 176th hull to the service, the future USCGC William Chadwick (WPC-1150). Chadwick, as the hull number points to, is the 50th FRC delivered since the first, USCGC Bernard C. Webber (WPC-1101), was contracted in September 2008. All in all, not a bad record for just under 14 years.
USCGC Chadwick will be the first of six FRCs to be homeported in Sector Boston, which is known as “The Birthplace of the Coast Guard.” Photo via Bollinger.
Based on the Dutch Damen Stan 4708 patrol vessel, the Coast Guard expects to order 64 of the increasingly useful vessels.
At a cost of about $65 million for each hull, the entire program of record is set to come in at under $4 billion which sounds like a lot but keep in mind the Navy has sunk nine times that much, over $36 billion, into the Littoral Combat Ship program already (even with the “cost savings” of decommissioning ships only a few years old, hyping that each LCS hull costs $70 million per year to keep in the water).
Besides a 25mm MK 38 Mod 2 forward, the FRCs have at least four mounts for M2 .50 cals, a decent C4ISR suite for their size, a 28-knot flank speed, and the capability to sortie over 2,000 nm on a two-week patrol without refueling or re-provisioning. They also have a stern launch and recovery ramp for a 26-foot, over-the-horizon interceptor cutter boat.
Douglas Denman arrives in Alaska after a 7,000-mile cruise
Set to be commissioned at her new home port at Ketchikan in September, the future USCGC Douglas Denman (WPC-1149), the Coast Guard’s 49th Fast Response Cutter, traveled nearly 7,000 miles from the most southeastern city in the U.S. to the most southeastern city in Alaska, transiting through the Caribbean Sea, the Panama Canal, and up the west coast of Central America and the U.S. in a 36-day voyage.
USCGC Douglas Denman (WPC-1149) via Bollinger
After delivery from Bollinger, FRCs and their plankowner crews spend almost two months at Key West where there is no shortage of missions in the Florida Straits on which to sharpen up.
From the 17th Coast Guard district on that process:
Following production of the ship in 2020, the first crewmember arrived in Ketchikan summer of 2021. Since then, the crew has undergone a year of administration and training in preparation to take ownership of the cutter. The engineering department alone attended a total of three months of school in addition to the crew’s seven weeks of familiarity training in Lockport, La., and seven weeks of Post Delivery Availability phase in Key West, Fla.
Full FRC six-pack in the Middle East
On 23 August, USCGC John Scheuerman (WPC 1146) and USCGC Clarence Sutphin Jr. (WPC 1147), joined four other examples of the newest Sentinel-class fast response cutters as part of the Coast Guard’s long-standing Patrol Forces Southwest Asia (PATFORSWA), stationed in Bahrain where U.S. 5th Fleet is headquartered.
The two FRCs completed a 10,000-nautical-mile transit to Bahrain, escorted by 270-foot medium endurance cutter USCGC Mohawk (WMEC-913), which acted as a mothership, rather than having to be loaded as float-on cargo.
The Coast Guard has been using more of these mini surface action groups (or “Surface Asset Group” in USCG parlance), such as in the response to 2017’s Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and you can easily imagine such white-hulled SAGs in the event of a conflict.
Scheuerman and Sutphin were met by two other FRCs of the Coast Guard’s Persian Gulf squadron– USCGC Glen Harris (WPC 1144) and USCGC Emlen Tunnell (WPC 1145)— flying their characteristic oversized U.S. ensigns, for a great photo op through the Straits.
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)
Harris and Tunnell only recently arrived in Bahrain themselves, joining USCGC Robert Goldman (WPC 1142) and USCGC Charles Moulthrope (WPC 1141), to retire the six aging Reagan-era Island-class cutters that had been there since 2002 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Legacy 110 foot Island class cutters compared to the new 154-foot Sentinel (Webber) class FRCs
Besides their stabilized MK 38 25mm gun and half-dozen (up from four as seen on stateside FRCs) M2 mounts, the Sentinels in Bahrain are equipped with the CG-HALLTS system, a hailer that has laser and LRAD capabilities, as well as a special S-band Sierra Nevada Modi RPS-42 pulse doppler with full-time 360-degree coverage, and other goodies to include four dedicated Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs) on the O-1 deck. Additionally, the already experienced cutter and boarding crews of PATFORSWA have to go through 5-6 weeks of Pre Deployment Training (PDT) with the service’s Special Mission Training Center at Camp Lejune and undergo more training once they reach Bahrain.
Hosting RIMPAC Marines ISR team
Finally, it should be pointed out that the FRC USCGC Cutter William Hart (WPC 1134)— who has been working with embarked teams of Hawaii-based Marines for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance tests in the littoral since 2021– apparently did more of the same in the recently-concluded RIMPAC exercises.
Hart has been very active in presence missions in Oceania, recently completing a 10-day voyage to Samoa last winter in Operation Kurukuru and then operating alongside ships from the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and France to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (often from Chinese trawlers) in the region while on a 39-day patrol— which is a long time to spend on a 154-foot ship.
Still, they are getting it done and on the cheap at that.
