Category Archives: USCG

Bring back the Garcias!

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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. 

Just saying.

The Sentinel-class is suddenly everywhere

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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.

USCG at the ‘Canal

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In July 1940, the Coast Guard numbered just 13,766 officers and men of all ranks, spread out from the Philipines to the Virgin Islands. By July 1942, it would balloon to 58,998 men (and was starting to recruit women as well) on active duty (excluding the CONUS “Corsair Fleet” in the Temporary Reserve), with many of those overseas serving under Navy control. Besides manning sub-busting cutters, frigates, and destroyer escorts, one of the main uses for the Coasties by its bigger brother was in manning landing craft desperately needed in amphibious warfare.

A dedicated landing craft school at the U.S. Marine Base, New River, North Carolina, instructing cutter boatswains, coxswains, and surfboat crews in landing craft handling and engine operation. Pioneering the art of taking Marines and Soldiers from troopships and transports via strange new flat-hulled LCVPs (Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel) and LCMs (Landing Craft, Mechanized) to the beach and returning with wounded and prisoners. It was there, along North Carolina’s Onslow Beach, that the foundations of the Torch, Husky, Avalanche, Overlord, Iceberg, and Detachment landings, among others, were laid.

In the spring of 1941, the Navy formed Transport Division Seven out of former U.S. Army troop transports, including the 21,000-ton Coast Guard-manned troopships USS Hunter Liggett (AP-27), USS Joseph T. Dickman (AP-26), and USS Leonard Wood (APA-12), along with the smaller (9,000-ton) USS Arthur Middleton (AP-55). Of these, Hunter Liggett was tapped for Operation Watchtower, the invasion of Guadalcanal while 18 of the 22 other Navy-manned transports on that mission would carry USCG landing crews to man their small boats.

USS Hunter Liggett (AP-27) Halftone reproduction of a photograph taken in 1942. Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1978. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. NH 86976

It was in August 1942 that the Coasties caught their first whiff of landing craft operations in a war zone.

From the USCG Historian’s office on Hunter Liggett off “The Canal” some 80 years ago this week:

She arrived off Guadalcanal the night of 6 August 1942. In this assault, America’s first amphibious operation since 1898, the ship was assigned to a later wave but sent her boats to aid in the initial landings, on 7 August. Air attacks began on the day after the landing, sinking fellow transport George F. Elliott, Hunter Liggett’s gunners shot down several of the attackers as she remained off the beaches. Early on the morning of 9 August, men in the transport area could see the flashes of light from an engagement off Savo Island. As the Japanese attempted to reinforce their Solomons garrison and destroy the transports they surprised an American Task Force and inflicted heavy losses. The Hunter Liggett and the other vulnerable transports got underway but soon returned to the transport area. After noon on 9 August, they began the grim job of rescuing survivors from the sunken cruisers Vincennes, Astoria, and Quincy. That afternoon the transport sailed with the wounded, in company with the damaged Chicago, to Noumea, where she arrived 2 days later. With the Guadalcanal campaign began the refinement of amphibious techniques which was to pay off so handsomely as the war progressed.

Original caption: As landing craft, manned by Coast Guard crews, bring in streams of supplies to the American base on Guadalcanal, a Coast Guardsman directs traffic with his signal flags. In the distance, a transport and a cargo ship stand on the horizon. From the landing barge in the foreground, a jeep emerges and runs down the ramp on the beach.

Original caption: With the nonchalance of long practice, Coast Guard-manned barges are lowered away as dawn breaks over Guadalcanal. For troops aboard the transport it means the end of a long trip, the beginning of a great adventure.

Original caption: Three Coast Guardsmen from a Coast Guard-manned assault transport in the South Pacific are engaged in salvaging useful material from battered and beached Japanese landing craft on an island near Guadalcanal. They are, left to right: Peter Caruso, seaman second class of Brooklyn, N.Y.; Frank Brewer, fireman first class, of Chicago, Illinois; and Lieut. (j.g.) Gordon C. Reinoehl, of Jasper, Texas.

Keep in mind the Coast Guard’s only MOH recipient, Signalman First Class Douglas Munro, earned his decoration posthumously while taking Marines off of a surrounded beach position in Guadalcanal via landing craft in September 1942.

Douglas A. Munro Covers the Withdrawal of the 7th Marines at Guadalcanal by Bernard D’Andrea. 

A display containing Petty Officer First Class Douglas Munro’s Medal of Honor and accompanying citation hangs in Munro Hall at the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May, N.J., (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Chief Warrant Officer John Edwards)

By 1943, the Coast Guard had evolved to manning larger LCI(L)s and LSTs, running 28 of the former and no less than 77 of the latter.

USS LST-831 approaching the beachhead at Okinawa on D-Day, 1 April 1945. (Note: the unauthorized letters “USCG” stenciled on her inner hull above the main ramp. US Coast Guard photo from the collections of the Office of the US Coast Guard Historian.

United States Coast Guard-manned LST beaching at Cape Gloucester, New Britain, Bismarck Islands, Dec 1943

LCI landing craft in the wake of a USCG-manned LST en route to Cape Sansapor, New Guinea, mid-1944

Photograph of Coast Guard Landing Barges Ferrying the Flood of Fighting Men Who Are Spreading Our Over Normandy. Original caption: The Invasion Stream Floods the Beaches of France. Bulging with reinforcements from the liberation waves that struck the French beaches and beached the vaunted Atlantic Wall, Coast Guard landing barges ferry the flood of fighting men who are spreading our over Normandy. They are transferred from a Coast Guard assault transport in the English Channel. In the distance, in a rhino loaded with ambulances easing toward the beach.

“The Coast Guard-manned landing craft LCI(L)-85 approached the beach at 12 knots. Her crew winced as they heard repeated thuds against the vessel’s hull made by the wooden stakes covering the beach like a crazy, tilted, man-made forest… The Coast Guard LCI(L)-85, battered by enemy fire after approaching Omaha Beach, prepares to evacuate the troops she was transporting to an awaiting transport. The “85” sank shortly after this photograph was taken. The LCI(L)-85 was one of four Coast Guard LCI’s that were destroyed on D-Day.”

US Coast Guardsmen assisting a wounded Marine into an LCVP after the Marine’s LVT sustained a direct hit while heading to the landing beaches on Iwo Jima, Feb 18, 1945.

US Coast Guard LCVP landing craft carried invasion troops toward Luzon in Lingayen Gulf, 9 Jan 1945

“He’s only 15, but he’s doing a man’s job, this Coast Guard “Invasion Kid.” Gerald W. Haddon, a seaman second class, has been under the fire of battle and is a veteran of 13 landings on Normandy Beach. Granted to be the youngest invader in the Allied Forces, “The Kid” enlisted when he was 14 and celebrated his 15th birthday under a Nazi bombing attack in the Mediterranean. The truth of his age came out after Normandy when he failed to report for morning muster aboard a Coast Guard-manned LST. He was found fast asleep in his bunk, too tired to “hit the deck.” But Coast Guardsman Haddon, now in England, is fighting to stay in the fight. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. William A. Haddon, of 4150 West Harrison Street, Chicago, Ill.”

Besides this, some 288 of the Army’s ships— AMRS (Army Marine Repair Ship), TY (tankers), LT (large tugs), FS (freight and supply vessels), and F (Freight vessels)– were manned by the Coast Guard and were responsible for keeping those chains of islands in the Pacific as well as ports along the Med supplied and running.

By 1945, with the Coast Guard counting 171,192 officers and enlisted (including 8,877 women in the SPARS), the service was more than pulling its own. If it came across a beach in any theatre, odds are the Coasties had a hand in putting it there.

RIMPAC Review (and Coasties, too)

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The 28th biennial RIMPAC, the world’s largest maritime warfare exercise, wrapped up last Friday. In all, some 26 nations sent 38 ships, four submarines, more than 170 aircraft, more than 30 unmanned systems, and 25,000 personnel to take part in the six-week exercise that stretched across the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California.

We’ve detailed some of the interesting ships already, but be sure to check out this great PHOTOEX of the combined fleet steaming in perfect formation in bright daylight.

Batteries released

There were two SINKEXs, the first of which was the recently-retired OHP-class frigate ex-USS Rodney M. Davis (FFG 60) sent to the bottom in waters more than 15,000 feet deep and over 50 nautical miles North of Kauai. From the sea, U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Chaffee (DDG 90) shot her Mark 45 5-inch gun. Units from Australia, Canada, Malaysia, and the U.S. participated in the sinking exercise “to gain proficiency in tactics, targeting, and live firing against a surface target at sea.”

The second of which was the old gator ex-USS Denver (LPD 9), sent down almost on top of Davis. From the land, the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force and U.S. Army shot Type 12 surface-to-ship missiles and practice rockets. From the air, U.S. Navy F/A-18F Super Hornets assigned to Fighter Attack Squadron 41 shot a long-range anti-ship missile. U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopters shot air-to-ground Hellfire missiles, rockets, and 30mm guns. U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18C/D Hornets assigned to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 232, Marine Air-Ground Task Force 7, fired an air-launched cruise missile, air-to-surface anti-radiation missiles, an air-to-ground anti-radiation missile, and joint direct attack munitions.

Coasties for the layup

Of note, the Coast Guard, stretching its legs via the service’s new and long-ranging frigate-sized (4,600t, 418-feet oal) Ingalls-built Legend-class national security cutters, contributing to the largest Coast Guard participation in the history of RIMPAC. This included the NSC cutter Midgett (WMSL-757) and the new 154-foot Fast Response Cutter William Hart (WPC 1134), the Pacific Dive Locker (who took part in port clearance operations with members of the ROK Navy), and Maritime Safety and Security Team Honolulu (who did survey work in the port in support of clearing).

Importantly, although her largest currently embarked weapon is a 57mm Bofors, Midgett has long-range sensors (a 3D TRS-16 AN/SPS-75 air search radar with an instrumented range of up to 250 km plus a AN/SPS-79 surface search set) and logged “at least nine constructive kills” during RIMPAC’s war at sea phase of RIMPAC, feeding targeting information to other assets via Link 16, an underrated force multiplier.

Midgett also embarked Navy MH-60Rs off and on during the exercise, something you can be sure of seeing during a real live shooting war. This is reportedly the first time the platform has operated from a cutter during RIMPAC

The Marines at Schofield Barracks have used FRCs in the past to set up commo nodes afloat, a task that it is super easy to imagine these shallow draft littoral vessels performing in time of crisis around scattered West Pac atolls. This worked with a mesh between the USCG’s Rescue 21 C4ISR system and an embarked Marine SATCOM team.
 
Marines and the @U.S. Coast Guard establish communications aboard USCGC William Hart (WPC 1134) during Large Scale Exercise 2021, at U.S. Coast Guard Base Honolulu. LSE 2021 is a live, virtual, and constructive exercise employing integrated command and control, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and sensors across the joint force to expand battlefield awareness, share targeting data, and conduct long-range precision strikes in support of naval operations in a contested and distributed maritime environment. 

Guarding the P.R.

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While the Commonwealth has a ton of reserve force installations (Fort Buchanan, Fort Allen, Campamento Santiago, Isla Verde training area, Punta Borinquen tracking station) that host the 8,700-strong Puerto Rico Army and Air Guard as well as reserve tenant activities from across DOD, there is little visible active military presence in Puerto Rico. After all, NAS Isla Grande closed in 1971, Ramey Air Force Base shut down in 1973, the Navy’s SOSUS facility at Ramey shuttered in 1976, and the famed “Rosey Roads” Naval Station wound down in the early 2000s following protests,

However, the Coast Guard maintains an extensive operation in the PR.

Coast Guard Puerto Rico’s Sector San Juan encompasses a 1.3 million square nautical miles area of responsibility throughout the Eastern Caribbean. The Sector includes two of the busiest ports in the nation, which receive over three million visitors and 11,000 vessel arrivals annually, including almost 1,600 cruise ships.

The Sector comprises more than 500 Active Duty and Reserve Sector personnel in 13 subordinate units, including seven fast response cutters, a Marine Safety Detachment, two Resident Inspection Offices, an Aids to Navigation Team, and a Tactical/Pursuit Station with two Boat Force Detachments.

Puerto Rico has an impressive squadron of seven new 154-foot Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutters, all received in the past seven years:

USCGC Richard Dixon (WPC-1113), a new FRC, one of seven deployed in Puerto Rico

  • Richard Dixon (WPC-1113)
  • Heriberto Hernandez (WPC-1114)
  • Joseph Napier (WPC-1115)
  • Winslow W. Griesser (WPC-1116)
  • Donald Horsley (WPC-1117)
  • Joseph Tezanos (WPC-1118)
  • Joseph Doyle (WPC-1133)

And they have been very busy earning snowflakes for large narco busts at sea.

Coast Guard artist Robert Selby recently compiled a triptych of the Sector, entitled, “Guardians of the Puerto Rican Coast,” after shipping out on one of the FRCs.
 

Sector San Juan operations are supported by Coast Guard Base San Juan and Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen, one of three major air stations in the Coast Guard’s Seventh District.

Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen operates from part of the old Ramsay AFB reservation and runs four MH60T Jayhawks– which replaced smaller MH65 Dolphins last year– while also supporting a variety of forward-deployed aircraft.

All told, the air station is home to 170 enlisted personnel, 35 officers, and 150 civilians.

Still Clocking in: Springfield 1903

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You know I gotta signal boost M1903s still on the front lines. As the last one was assembled in 1945, it always gives me a grin when I see one still at work, even if it is as a “bucket gun.”

Bonus as the receiver is the 110-foot Island-class patrol boat USCGC Tybee (WPB-1330) which, commissioned in 1989, only has a couple of seasons left in her before she shuffles off to some Third World partner for a second career under a different flag.

22 July 2022. Petty Officer 3rd Class Vincent Isaiah Pangelinan, a Gunner’s Mate aboard Coast Guard Cutter Seneca, fires the messenger line to pass the towing line to CGC Tybee during a towing evolution off the coast of Massachusetts. A messenger line is used to assist in heaving the mooring to the shore or to another ship. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Kyle Miller) VRIN 220722-G-ZZ999-001

SPSS Art

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Dubbed either self-propelled semi-submersibles (SPSS) or low-profile vessels (LPVs), “narco subs” have gone from being a unicorn type of thing discussed only in Clive Cussler books to the real deal, especially when it comes to the Eastern Pacific, where they seem to be the vessel of choice running coke from South America to transshipment points in Central America.

Since they first started popping up in 2006, these craft have become an almost weekly thing in the past few years. The USCG and SOUTHCOM assets stopped almost 40 such boats in 2019, this number continued into 2020 where, across four days in mid-May Southcom stopped three narco submarines in the same week (remember the “Alto su barco” incident?), and showed no sign of stopping if you look at the typical patrols done by cutters throughout 2021-22.

Almost every recent EastPac patrol by the Coast Guard (or Fourth Fleet with a USCG LEDET aboard) shows off images of an LPV stopped with a gleaming white cutter in the background.

USCGC Northland (WMEC 904) interdicts a low-profile vessel in the Eastern Pacific Ocean in August 2021. The Northland crew returned to Portsmouth Monday, following an 80-day patrol in the Eastern Pacific Ocean in support of the Coast Guard Eleventh District and Joint Interagency Task Force South. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)

This translates into a whole series of art produced as part of the U.S. Coast Guard Art Collection in the past few years on the subject:

El Tiburon Blanco looking great

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The Reliance-class U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Steadfast (WMEC 623, ex WPC-623) returned to homeport last week following a 55-day/11,000-mile counter-narcotics deployment to the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The 54-year-old 210-foot medium endurance cutter and crew conducted law enforcement and search-and-rescue operations in international waters off Central America from Mexico to Costa Rica.

With an embarked MH-65E Dolphin helicopter and aviation detachment from Air Station Port Angeles, Washington, and with additional crew members from the Tactical Law Enforcement Team Pacific, Electronics Support Detachment Detroit, Coast Guard Base Galveston, and three U.S. Coast Guard Academy cadets, she got some amazing photo-ex shots while underway.

The crew aboard U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Steadfast (WMEC-623) stands in formation on the ship’s flight deck while underway off the coast of Central America on Memorial Day, 2022. An embarked MH-65 Dolphin helicopter detachment crew from Air Station Port Angeles hovered overhead for the photo in recognition of the day of remembrance. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Seaman Brad O’Brien)

Note that the awnings typically rigged on such patrols to shelter picked-up migrants and smuggling suspects, shield the cutter’s Mk38 25mm gun, which replaced her old 3″/50 in 1994. The 210-foot cutter has a pair of M2 .50 cals on her bridge wings that cover both her decks and for use in boardings. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Seaman Brad O’Brien)

The class is capable of operating HH-60 and HH-65-sized helicopters albeit without the ability to do in-depth maintenance as they have no hangar. Note the LSO box under the smack. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Seaman Brad O’Brien)

As noted by the USCG, on her latest deployment:

The crew of the Steadfast also worked with Mexican law enforcement assets on two occasions, to locate, track, and interdict fast-moving drug smuggling vessels, resulting in the seizure of 2,747 kilograms of cocaine by Mexican authorities, valued at $109 million.

While transiting South of Mexico, Steadfast’s bridge team sighted a disabled and adrift open-hull vessel with two Mexican adult males waving life jackets. Steadfast approached the vessel to investigate and determine the nature of distress. The imperiled mariners stated that they were fishermen who had been adrift for 23 days after their vessel had been beset by weather. Steadfast embarked both persons, provided meals and medical care, and returned them safely back to Mexico.

Steadfast is a Reliance Class cutter that has been homeported in Astoria since 1994. Previously, Steadfast was homeported in St. Petersburg, Florida where she earned the nickname “El Tiburon Blanco,” (“White Shark”) from drug smugglers for her notoriety in counter-narcotics operations in the Florida Straits and the Caribbean Sea.

All in all, not too bad looking for a ship that launched in 1967.

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Steadfast side-launched at the American Shipbuilding Company, Lorain 1967

OPCs of Mobile Bay

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We’ve covered the USCG’s new Offshore Patrol Cutter program at length.

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 four– 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 to replace both the elderly 1960s-era 210-foot Reliance and aging 1980s-era 270-foot Bear-class cutters, announced on Thursday 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 announcement via USCG HQ, Washington:

WASHINGTON – The Coast Guard awarded a fixed-price incentive (firm target) contract to Austal USA of Mobile, Ala. to produce up to 11 offshore patrol cutters (OPCs). 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.

In 2019, the Coast Guard revised the OPC acquisition strategy to mitigate emergent cost and schedule risk by establishing a new, full and open competition for OPCs five and through 15, designated as Stage 2 of the overall program. Informed by industry feedback received through a robust engagement strategy, the Coast Guard released a request for proposal Jan. 29, 2021, for OPC Stage 2 detail design and production. 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.

“The offshore patrol cutter is absolutely vital to Coast Guard mission excellence as we recapitalize our legacy medium endurance cutters, some of which are more than 50 years old,” said Adm. Linda Fagan, commandant of the Coast Guard. “The OPCs are the ships our crews need to protect our national security, maritime safety and economic prosperity. I look forward to the new cutters joining our fleet.”

The 25-ship OPC program of record complements the capabilities of the service’s national security cutters, fast response cutters and polar security cutters as an essential element of the Department of Homeland Security’s layered maritime security strategy. The OPC will meet the service’s long-term need for cutters capable of deploying independently or as part of task groups and is essential to stopping smugglers at sea, interdicting undocumented non-citizens, rescuing mariners, enforcing fisheries laws, responding to disasters and protecting ports.

Austal, of course, is the joint Australian-American operation that has built the controversial Independence-class of littoral combat ships and Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport ships, all notably with composite hulls. The OPCs will be the company’s first steel-hulled warships.

That has caused some heartburn with Florida Congresscritters.

From U.S. Rep. Neal Dunn, R-Fla-2:

The Coast Guard made a mistake in its Offshore Patrol Cutter stage II decision. Eastern Shipbuilding is known for quality products and the Coast Guard knows this. I am very concerned the foreign company awarded the contract lacks experience in building steel vessels. This will ultimately cost taxpayers more money, and further delay these ships from entering service to protect our nation’s shores. My office will work to push the Coast Guard to reconsider this decision.

I will continue to fight for more economic opportunity for the people of Florida’s Second Congressional District.

Gulfport Harbor views

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Just some snaps taken while kayaking around Gulfport harbor down on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

The above shows the replica Ship Island Lighthouse at Jones Park built in 2011 after the original which was lost to a fire in 1972 (and a replica made by the SeaBees had been lost to Katrina). To the left are the gleaming white 87-foot Bollinger-built Maritime Protector-class cutters USCGC Moray (WPB-87331) and USCGC Tiger Shark (WPB-87359) next to CG Sta Gulfport, where you can see the nose of two 45-foot RB-Ms poking out from the boathouse. You can see Customs “Blue Lighting” interceptors to the far left.

A close-up of USCGC Moray (WPB-87331) and USCGC Tiger Shark (WPB-87359). The “color of the boathouse” in Gulfport is rust, btw.

Also buzzing around for the past couple of weeks, no doubt on summer camp, have been a number of USCG Transportable Port Security Boats, surely of the Kiln-based PSU 308. As noted by the USCG, “TPSBs serve to assist in anti-terrorism force protection and shore-side security capable of supporting port and waterway security anywhere the military operates.”

TPSB #32112, sans its normal M2 .50 cals

Of note, #32112 was formerly deployed to Gitmo with PSU 308 back in 2015.

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