Category Archives: USCG

Drone updates galore

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So it looks like the DOD (and the Coast Guard) is finally getting serious about UAVs and USVs. Lots of recent developments.

To kick it off, a recent Congressional Research Service report on the U.S. Army’s Small Uncrewed Aircraft Systems Programs highlights the increase in funding for the UAS, with the Army requesting $803.9 million for procurement and research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) for FY26. Compare this to just $99.9 million in FY24.

In a nod to the increase, the Army formally established the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF 401) with a mission to enhance the DOD’s unmanned systems and affordable C-sUAS capabilities.

Further, Fort Rucker has established its first Unmanned Advanced Lethality Course.

Speaking of Rucker, during the Army’s Unmanned Aerial Systems and Launched Effects Summit, held Aug. 11-15 on the base, a paratrooper from the 173rd Airborne Brigade “achieved a milestone once unimaginable for conventional Army units: destroying an aircraft in flight using a first-person-view drone carrying an explosive charge.” In short, strapping a remote detonated claymore to a Skydio.

The service has been using small FPVs with charges in exercises in Europe in recent months.

U.S. Army paratroopers assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade prepare to operate and detonate a live First Person View (FPV) drone at Pabradė Training Area, Lithuania, during a joint forcible entry operation as part of Swift Response 2025 (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Jose Lora)

And in Poland, as part of Project Flytrap 4.0, an evolving C-UAS training event, troopers with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment “detected, tracked, engaged and defeated multiple drones at ranges between 500 and 800 meters using the Ballistic Low Altitude Drone Engagement system from a Stryker vehicle.”

BLADE has been fielded slowly since 2019, and is interesting.

Ballistic Low Altitude Drone Engagement, or BLADE, prototypes are mounted on trucks during an engineering test in June at Fort Dix, New Jersey. BLADE is integrated with an armament system to shoot down smaller unmanned aerial systems at close ranges. The test proved that the BLADE system can hit them with only a short burst of fire. (Photo by Marian Popescu, CCDC Armaments Center BLADE team)

“Some of those [drone] threats were being flown simultaneously, so the system defeated one target then quickly targeted and defeated a second target in a matter of seconds,” said David Goldstein, counter-unmanned aerial systems lead for the Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center at Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey.

With BLADE, a precision radar and C-UAS fire control software are integrated with CROWS hardware and software to assist operators in identifying, tracking, and pointing the weapon to a continually calculated intercept point, enabling the difficult challenge of destroying enemy drones.

Capable of functioning with numerous weapons, the BLADE/CROWS combination at Project Flytrap included an M2 .50-caliber machine gun firing multiround bursts.

The Army has also initiated production of the second tranche of its short-range reconnaissance (SRR) unmanned aircraft systems, and has “selected two vendors to manufacture the SRR system, which will equip the Army’s Transformation in Contact units with advanced, networked communication systems designed to address emerging threats.”

Initial fielding of SRR tranche one began in September 2022, and, to date, the Army has fielded over 16 brigades with this capability. Critical lessons learned and soldier feedback from tranche one were incorporated into tranche two. This strategy of integrating new technologies into future tranches will continue to provide the best UAS capabilities on an accelerated schedule.

Meanwhile, with the Coast Guard

The U.S. Coast Guard announced recently the Initial Operating Capability of the Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) Program Executive Office (PEO), “dedicated to the rapid operationalization of the Unmanned Systems Strategic Plan.”

While the service has been sending cutters overseas with contractor-operated Scan Eagle UAVs since 2018 and has been trialing other platforms, a USCG LCDR who has been flying an MQ-9 with the Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Patrol’s Air and Maritime Operations Division out of San Antonio just earned his wings, becoming the Coast Guard’s first aviation vehicle pilot. The service plans to spend $266 million to acquire its own MQ-9 Alphas in the coming months.

And finally, DARPA’s USX-1 Defiant, the No Manning Required Ship (NOMARS) platform, was recently christened in Everett, Washington.

The 180-foot-long, 240-ton lightship, which “can handle operations in sea state 5 with no degradation and survive much higher seas,” is completing final systems testing in preparation for an extended at-sea demonstration of reliability and endurance.

Warship Wednesday, September 3, 2025: The Three-flagged Frigate

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”

Warship Wednesday, September 3, 2025: The Three-flagged Frigate

National Archives photo 19-N-66007

Above we see the fine new Tacoma-class patrol frigate USS Bisbee (PF-46) during her shakedowns off San Pedro, California, on 23 May 1944, wearing camouflage pattern Measure 32 Design 16D. At the time under the command of a USCG O-5, she had an all Coastie crew, including several well-trained Texas horsemen, which she would go on to carry throughout most of WWII.

Then things got a little weird.

The Tacomas

One of the most generic convoy escorts ever designed was the River-class frigates of the Royal Navy and its sister Australian and Canadian services. Sturdy 301-foot/1,800-ton vessels, some 151 were built between May 1941 and April 1945.

Canadian River-class frigate HMCS Waskesiu (K330) with a bone in her mouth, 1944. Kodachrome via LAC

River Class – Booklet of General Plans, 1941, profile

Carrying a few QF 4″/40s, a suite of light AAA guns, and a huge array of ASW weapons with as many as 150 depth charges, they could make 20 knots and had extremely long range, pushing 7,000nm at a 15-knot cruising speed.

In a sort of reverse Lend-Lease, two Canadian Vickers-built Rivers were transferred to the U.S. Navy, the planned HMS Adur (K296) and HMS Annan, in 1942, becoming the patrol gunboats– later patrol frigates– USS Asheville (PG-101/PF-1) and USS Natchez (PG-102/PF-2). Built at Montreal, Asheville and Natchez were completed with standard U.S. armament and sensors, including three 3″/50s, two 40mm mounts, Oerlikons, and SC-5 and SG radar. Everything else, including the power plant, was British.

USS Asheville (PF-1) plans

With that, the New York naval architecture firm of Gibbs & Cox took the River class frigate plans and tweaked them gently to become the Tacoma-class frigates. Some 2,200 tons at full load, these 303-foot ships used two small tube express boilers and two  J. Hendy Iron Works VTE engines on twin screws to cough up 5,500shp, good for just over 20 knots with a 9,500nm range at 12 knots. Standard armament was a carbon copy of Asheville/Natchez: three 3″/50s, two twin 40mm mounts, nine Oerlikons, two stern depth charge racks, eight Y-gun depth charge throwers, a 24-cell Hedgehog Mk 10 ASWRL, and 100 ash cans. Radar was upgraded to the SA and SL series, while the hull-mounted sonar was a QGA set.

USS Albuquerque 1943 (PF-7), Tacoma class patrol frigate 200414-G-G0000-0003

These could be built at non-traditional commercial yards under Maritime Commission (MC Type T. S2-S2-AQ1) contracts, using an all-welded hull rather than the riveted hull of the British/Canadian Rivers. Many of these would be constructed on the Great Lakes, including by ASBC in Ohio (13 ships), Froemming (4), Walter Butler (12), Globe (8), and Leathem Smith (8) in Wisconsin. On the East Coast, Walsh-Kaiser in Rhode Island made 21, while on the West Coast, Kaiser Cargo and Consolidated Steel in California produced a combined 30 ships.

Using compartmentalized construction, they went together fast. No less than nine Tacomas were built in less than five months, 16 were built in less than six months, and 11 others were built in less than seven months. These times stack up well to the original River class built in British yards, where the best time recorded was 7.5 months. In Canada, the fastest time was just over 5 months.

The Tacomas cost about $2.3 million apiece, compared to $3.5 million for a Cannon-class destroyer escort, or $6 million for a Fletcher-class destroyer, in 1944 dollars.

Meet Bisbee

Consolidated Steel Company’s Los Angeles yard, built on 95 acres in Wilmington, was an emergency operation that was only started in 1941. In 1944, they were booming with 12,000 workers on eight shipways working rotating 10.5-hour shifts. Amazingly, the yard delivered 126 C1 Liberty ships, 10 big C2s, 32 Gilliam-class attack transports (APAs), and 18 Tacoma-class PFs.

Consolidated Steel’s Wilmington yard was in full tilt in 1944, with eight shipways to the right, eight floating Liberty ships in the center fitting out, and six APAs and six PFs fitting out to the left.

The 18 Tacomas built at Consolidated were in a block, PF-34 through PF-51, Yard Nos. 519 through 536. Sandwiched in these was our subject, named for the mining town of Bisbee, Arizona. Originally authorized as Patrol Gunboat, PG-154, she was reclassified as PF-46 before construction began. Laid down on 7 August 1943, she launched one month later on 7 September and commissioned at Terminal Island on 15 February 1944, her construction spanning 6 months, 8 days.

Launching of future USS Bisbee (PF-46), 7 September 1943,  Consolidated Steel Co., Ltd., Los Angeles. NHHC UA 462.27 Mary Murphy Collection.

She spent the next 10 weeks on trials, workups, and yard availability.

Bow-on view USS Bisbee (PF-46) off San Pedro, California, on 23 May 1944. 19-N-66005

Port view USS Bisbee (PF-46) off San Pedro, California, on 23 May 1944. 19-N-66004

Stern view of USS Bisbee (PF-46) off San Pedro, California, on 23 May 1944. Note her depth charge racks and throwers. 19-N-66008

Same as above, 19-N-66006.

Starboard view USS Bisbee (PF-46) off San Pedro, California, on 23 May 1944. 19-N-66003

Semper Paratus!

Of the 100 Tacomas issued hull numbers (PF-3 through PF-102), only four, PF-95 through PF-98, were canceled on the ways (all under contract to American SB in Ohio). Twenty-one others, PF-72 through PF-92, all built by Walsh-Kaiser in Rhode Island, were turned over to the Royal Navy, which renamed them after colonies.

That leaves 75 hulls that were put into Navy service. As the Navy, which operated PF-1 and PF-2, knew the poor handling and habitability of the River design, especially in hot climes, they decided all 75 would be manned by the Coast Guard instead.

Bisbee’s plankowner skipper was a regular, T/CDR John Peter German (USNA 1932), with a wardroom of seven junior officers, many on their first sea-going billet.

Before arriving aboard Bisbee at Terminal Island, many of her officers and crew had sailed on class leader Tacoma off San Pedro for three weeks to get a feel for their new home.

The crew, mostly USCGR ratings enlisted for the duration, included 30 “horse coxswains,” Texas cowboys who had originally signed up in 1942 for the mounted Beach Patrol along the sand dunes of the Gulf Coast. However, by late 1943, the Beach Patrol was being whittled down, and its members were given sea duty. Whomp whomp.

Just 25 of the crew, skipper included, were regulars, making up about an eighth of the complement.

Her crew, in USCG tradition, included a U.S. Public Health Service Medical Officer, Brooklyn native Domenic C. Calamia, PAS, rather than a Navy doctor. Medical Officers of the Public Health Service have been assigned to Coast Guard vessels since 1879, a tradition that endures today. The Commissioned Corps of the USPHS grew from 500 men and women to over 16,000 during WWII, including 660 of whom deployed with the USCG and on CG-manned vessels in every theatre, with three KIA.

At 1700 on 31 May 1944, Bisbee weighed anchor at San Pedro and sailed West to join the Fleet. On 11 June, she passed the equator, and 205 fresh Pollywogs became Shellbacks. Four days later, they crossed into the Domain of the Golden Dragon and on the 21st made their first foreign port, Noumena, in French New Caledonia.

She became the flagship of CortDiv43 (Capt. William J. Austerman, USCG), joining sisters USS Gallup (PF-47), Rockford (PF-48), Muskogee (PF-49), Carson City (PF-50), and Burlington (PF-51). Austerman was joined aboard by a flag staff of two officers (j.g.s) as staff Communications and Recognition officers, and four enlisted (a CY, a CRM, and two sailors).

Moving forward to Papua by way of Cairns, Australia, Bisbee, in the train of the 7th Fleet Amphibious Division, had her baptism of fire in the Biak campaign, bombarding enemy-held villages in the Wardo area for 28 minutes on 7 August, expending 119 rounds of 3-inch, 230 of 40mm, and 982 of 20mm. Her motor launch, with Army observers aboard, contacted local patrols ashore and took into custody seven Japanese prisoners of war for transport back to HQ.

On the 17th, steaming with sister Gallup off Mokmur, Biak, Bisbee supported dawn landings there and plastered the beach with 152 rounds of 3-inch, 820 of 40mm, and 2,460 of 20mm.

With Maj. Gen. Jens Anderson Doe, commander of the 41st Infantry Division (“Jungleers”), aboard Bisbee closed to the North Coast of Biak on 25 August 1944 and bombarded Japanese-held Cape Oboebari at the mouth of the Wardo River with over 4,800 assorted rounds in just 20 minutes while only 1,100 yards offshore. Then came a landing by a company of the 41st on Blue Beach to prevent an enemy escape.

While on ASW patrol in the waters of Geelvink Bay off the Western end of Noemfoor Island, New Guinea, on 1 September, Bisbee spotted Flight Sgt. John C. Keene, RAAF, bobbing around the Coral Sea in a rubber life raft. Keene had been afloat for a day; his bomber had been lost on 31 August. Delivering the waterlogged sergeant to shore, Bisbee caught orders to head for Seadler Harbor in the Admiralty Islands.

Then came the Philippines

On 18 October 1944, Bisbee, accompanied by the destroyers USS Lang (DD-399) and Ross (DD-563), along with the old “Green Dragon” USS Herbert (APD-22), escorted an element (Capt. Bull Simmons’ B company) of the Sixth Ranger Battalion with supplies and equipment to Homonhon Island’s Black Beach Two so that the LCVP-borne Rangers could destroy Japanese installations there which guarded Leyte Gulf and set up nav beacons. Importantly, this was the first island in the Philippines chain to be liberated.

Similar landings were made on Suluan (D company) and Dinagat Islands (A, C, E, and F companies), paving the way for the main invasion on 20 October. The operation was under TG 78.5, with the group commander, Capt. F.W. Benson, USN, using Bisbee as his flag.

Bisbee herself fired 99 rounds of 3-inch ashore that morning from 4,000 yards.

Early morning bombardment of Homonhon Island, Philippines, 18 October 1944, likely from USS Bisbee. US Army SC 260632

A patrol of Company F, 6th Rangers, investigates a native village on Dinagat Island during Phase One of the invasion of Leyte Gulf, Philippines.

The next morning, on 19 October, Bisbee assumed the role of Harbor Entrance Control Post, guiding hundreds of ships of Admiral Kinkaid’s landing force safely into Leyte Gulf through the mined waters of Surigao Strait. Later that day, she fended off the first of what would be several enemy aircraft over the next week, resulting in some close calls, including a torpedo from a Japanese Betty bomber passing just under the frigate’s stern.

Six days later, while still in her “box,” Bisbee’s crew watched the veteran battlewagons of RADM Jesse “Oley” Oldendorf’s TG.77.2 demolish VADM Shoji Nishimura’s force, with the battleships Fuso and Yamashiro sunk.

Her Philippines duty continued for 34 days until Bisbee caught orders back to Pearl Harbor for a refit, arriving there on 15 December, just in time for an “Aloha Christmas.”

On 6 January 1945, she was ordered north to the Aleutians for duty with the reassigned CortDiv43 in those frozen waters along the Bering Sea. For the next six months, they escorted Army transports and merchant vessels shuttling between Dutch Harbor, Adak, Amchitka, and Attu while doubling as an air-sea rescue guardship for Alaska-based Fleet Air Wing 4.

As the war wound down, she was given another short refit in Seattle and decommissioned on 26 August 1945 at Cold Bay, Alaska.

“All Hands” party program cover cartoon map, July 1945, by QMSC William R. Finlay, USCGR

Bisbee earned two battle stars for her WWII service, for the Cape Sansapor operation in Biak (12 Aug 44 – 19 Aug 44, and 22 Aug 44 – 31 Aug 44) as well as the Leyte landings (12 Oct 44 – 22 Nov 44).

Caviar Dreams and Bolshevik Screams

The day after she decommissioned in Alaska, Bisbee was handed over to Soviet custody as part of the 149 vessels transferred, on loan, under Project Hula, an initiative that was designed to equip the Red Banner Pacific Fleet for planned Soviet invasions of southern Sakhalin and the Japanese Kurile Islands.

Her name changed to the unromantic EK-17; she was commissioned into Soviet service some 80 years ago this week, on 5 September 1945, and would remain in their custody for the rest of the decade.

American and Soviet commanding officers of the first ten frigates transferred at Cold Bay, July 1945. Commander John J. Hutson, Jr., USCG, the senior training officer, is seated, second from the left. Lieutenant E. H. Burt, USCGR, commanding Coronado (PF 38), is seated, second from the right.

The 28 Tacoma-class patrol frigates, unwanted by Big Navy, were still the largest, most heavily armed, and most expensive ships transferred during Hula. Even at that, they had been carefully sanitized to remove any equipment that was considered sensitive before transfer.

At least eight Tacomas saw combat with the Red Navy’s 10th Frigate Division in August, invading the Kuriles and Korea, with one even earning a “Guards” title.

A quick rundown:

EK-1 (Charlottesville, PF-25). Transferred to the USSR on 07/13/1945 and on 07/23/1945 became part of the Pacific Fleet. Participated in the landing at Seishin on 15 August 1945. Returned to the USA on 17 October 1949.

EK-2 (Long Beach, PF-34) Transferred to the USSR on 12 July 1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 23 July 1945. Participated in the landing of troops in Seishin on 14.08.1945 and Maoku on 20.08.1945. On 26.08.1945, he was awarded the “Guards” title. On 17.02.1950, he was returned to the USA.

EK-3 (Belfast, PF-35) Transferred to the USSR on 12.07.1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 23.07.1945. Participated in the landing of troops in Seishin on 15.08.1945 and Genzan (Wonsan) on 21.08.1945. Wrecked in 1948, used as a floating training hulk until 1960.

EK-4 (Machias, PF-53) Transferred to the USSR on 13.07.1945 and on 23.07.1945 entered the Pacific Fleet. Participated in the Kuril landing operation from August 18 to September 1, 1945. Returned to the United States in October 1949.

EK-5 (San Pedro, PF-37) Transferred to the USSR on July 12, 1945, and joined the Pacific Fleet on July 23, 1945. Participated in the landing at Racine (Najin) on 12.08.1945. Returned to the USA on 17.10.1949.

EK-6 (Glendale, PF-36) Transferred to the USSR on 13.07.1945 and on 23.07.1945 entered into the Pacific Fleet. Returned to the USA on 16.11.1949.

EK-7 (Sandusky, PF-54) Transferred to the USSR on July 13, 1945, and entered service with the Pacific Fleet on July 23, 1945. Participated in the landing of troops at Yuki (Ungi) on August 12, 1945. Returned to the USA on November 15, 1949.

EK-8 (Coronado, PF-38) Transferred to USSR on 13.07.1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 23.23.07.1945. Participated in the landing at Seishin (Chongjin) on 15.08.1945. Returned to USA on 16.10.1949.

EK-9 (Allentown, PF-52) Transferred to USSR on 13.07.1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 23.07.1945. Participated in the landing of troops at Yuki (Ungi) on 12.08.1945 and Seishin (Chongjin) on 15.08.1945. Returned to the USA on 15.10.1949.

EK-10 (Ogden, PF-39) Transferred to the USSR on 13.07.1945 and on 23.07.1945 entered into the Pacific Fleet. Returned to the USA on November 15, 1949.

EK-11 (Tacoma, PF-3) Transferred to the USSR on August 16, 1945, and joined the Pacific Fleet on August 26, 1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 16 October 1949.

EK-12 (Pasco, PF-6) Transferred to the USSR on 16 August 1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 26 August 1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 16 October 1949.

EK-13 (Hawkeye, PF-5) Transferred to the USSR on 16 August 1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 26 August 1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on November 1, 1949.

EK-14 (Albuquerque, PF-7) Transferred to the USSR on August 17, 1945, and entered service with the Pacific Fleet on August 26, 1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on November 15, 1949.

EK-15 (Everett, PF-8) Transferred to USSR on 17.08.1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 26.08.1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to USA on 15.11.1949.

EK-16 (Sasalito, PF-4) Transferred to USSR in August 1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 26.08.1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 11/01/1949

EK-17 (Bisbee, PF-46) Transferred to USSR 27.08.1945 and joined Pacific Fleet 5.09.1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to USA 1.11.1949

EK-18 (Rockford, PF-48) Transferred to USSR 27.08.1945 and joined Pacific Fleet 5.09.1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on November 1, 1949.

EK-19 (Muskogee, PF-49) Transferred to the USSR on August 27, 1945, and on September 5, 1945, entered service with the Pacific Fleet. Did not participate in combat operations. Returned to the USA on November 1, 1949.

EK-20 (Carson City, PF-50) Transferred to the USSR on August 30, 1945, and entered service with the Pacific Fleet on September 5, 1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on October 31, 1949.

EK-21 (Burlington, PF-51) Transferred to the USSR on 27.08.1945 and on 05.09.1945 entered into the Pacific Fleet. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 14.11.1949.

EK-22 (Gallup, PF-47) Transferred to the USSR in August 1945 and on 05.09.1945 entered into the Pacific Fleet. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on November 14, 1949.

EK-25 (Bayonne, PF-21) Transferred to the USSR in September 1945 and entered service with the Pacific Fleet on September 9, 1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on November 14, 1949.

EK-26 (Gloucester, PF-22) Transferred to the USSR on 4.09.1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 25.09.1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 31.10.1949.

EK-27 (Poughkeepsie, PF-26) Transferred to the USSR on 2.10.1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 31 October 1949.

EK-28 (Newport, PF-27) Transferred to the USSR on 10 September 1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 25 September 1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 11/14/1949.

EK-29 (Bath, PF-55) Transferred to the USSR on 13 July 1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 25 September 1945. Did not participate in combat operations. Returned to the USA on 15 November 1949.

EK-30 (Evansville, PF-70) Transferred to the USSR on 4.09.1945 and on 25.09.1945 entered into the Pacific Fleet. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 17.02.1950.

The 27 Tacomas still operational five years later were finally retrograded back to U.S. Navy custody in late 1949-early 1950 and were promptly laid up in Yokosuka.

Dozens of ex-Soviet Tacoma-class PFs were laid up at Yokosuka in January 1951. NH 97295

During the same immediate post-WWII period, the Navy had transferred more than two dozen other decommissioned Tacomas in its custody all over the world, with hulls going to Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Peru.

While the Navy didn’t really want them back, they damned sure didn’t want the Russkis to have them.

Jane’s 1946 listing for the class, noting 41 hulls with many, marked by an asterisk, being in Soviet hands, with “no word on their return.” The rest had already been handed out to overseas allies.

In the Navy!

Ironically, when the North Koreans jumped over the 38th Parallel to attack their brothers to the South in June 1950, the 27 laid up ex-USCG, ex-Red Navy Tacomas in Yokosuka suddenly became valuable. After all, they were simple ships by design, were low mileage (the Soviets apparently didn’t leave port much in the late 1940s), and, most importantly, were forward deployed.

In all, 15 Tacomas were recommissioned for Korean War duty, 13 of which were drawn from the rusty and beat-up rat-infested ex-Soviet boats in caretaker status at Yokosuka.

Refurbished at Yokosuka in August and September, Bisbee was recommissioned on 18 October 1950 and served the next five months continuously, arriving off Wonsan on 26 November to join TG 95.2 and only tapping out on April Fool’s Day 1951 for a refit. Much of this was on the gun line.

Back on the line on 8 July 1951, she would serve through 25 September of that year and then fill a third stint off Korea from 29 October 1951 over the holidays until 23 January 1952.

By that time, the use of PFs off the Korean coast was curtailed as the ships were backfilled by more capable destroyers and DEs.

While in action in Korea, Bisbee earned five battle stars.

  • K-2        Communist China Aggression (3-24 Dec 50, 28 Dec 50-4 Jan 51)
  • K-4        First U. N. Counter Offensive (24 Feb-6 Mar 51, 24-29 Mar 51)
  • K-5        Communist China Spring Offensive (22 Jul-3 Aug 51)
  • K-6        U. N. Summer-Fall Offensive (19 Jul 51, 15-16 Aug 51, 23-25 Aug 51, 13-17 Sep 51, 21-23 Sep 51)
  • K-8        Korean Defensive 1952 (13-19 Jan 52)

South America Bound

On 12 February 1952 at Sasebo, Bisbee was decommissioned for a second time.

While 18 of her sisters in Japan went on to the newly established Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, five went to the South Korean Navy.

JMSDF Kusu (Tree)-class frigates, former Tacoma-class patrol frigates, complete with rebooted IJN Rising Sun Flag. These ships were in extremely poor condition when transferred, having been Lend-Leased to the Soviets late in WWII and only returned in 1949, then placed in storage at Yokosuka. Notably, footage of them in JMSDF service appeared in 1954’s original Godzilla. While loaned to the Japanese military for initially five years, they were all eventually transferred outright and continued to serve into the 1970s.

Two (Glendale and Gallup) went south to Thailand while the final pair, Bisbee and Burlington, the latter also a fellow member of CortDiv43 during WWII, were sent around the world to join the Colombian Navy under the Mutual Defense Assistance Program.

Bisbee became ARC Capitan Tono (F 06, later F-12) while Burlington became ARC Almirante Brión (F-14).

ARC Capitan Tono (F 06), dressed on arrival in Colombian waters, 1952

They would serve with their former USCG-manned classmates ex-USS Groton, which had transferred in 1947.

Secretary of the Navy Dan A. Kimball (left) signs the Memorandum of Understanding transferring USS Bisbee (PF-46) to the Colombian Government, in his Pentagon office, 16 November 1951. In the center is Colombian Ambassador Don Dipriano Restrepo-Jaramillo. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Thomas G. Mann is at right. Bisbee served in the Colombian Navy as Capitan Tono. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-708424

Colombia Almirante Padilla class PFs: Bisbee, Groton, Burlington, 1960 Janes

Captain Tono (Columbian frigate, ex-USS Bisbee, PF -46) off Coco Solo, Canal Zone, 6 July 1955. NH 50604

Same as above, NH 81516

Bow on, NH 81515

She continued to serve until 1963, when she was scrapped.

Epilogue

Today, little remains of Bisbee that I can find other than the images in this post and her records in the National Archives.

She has a wall plaque at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Texas.

In Bisbee, Arizona, a large, scale model was in City Hall until it was destroyed in a fire in 2017. The Copper Queen Mine Museum outside of town maintains a similar model of our frigate, along with other relics.

One of her WWII USCG crew, LT (j.g.) John Bagdley, penned a sketch book on his service aboard, 2007’s “Frigate Men: Life on Coast Guard Frigate.” 

Her plankowner skipper, CDR German, who guided his frigate through New Guinea and the Philippines, remained in USCG service after the war and in 1959 was the captain of the famed icebreaker USCGC Mackinaw. He passed in 1963, aged just 55, and is buried at Arlington.

As for the Tacomas, class leader PF-3, on whose deck Bisbee’s crew trained before taking to their own ship, is preserved in South Korea, having served in that country’s navy until 1973. Meanwhile, both the old Glendale and Gallup, both of which served with Bisbee in the Pacific and under the Red Star, are preserved in Thailand.

HTMS Prasae (PF-2), ex-USS Gallup (PF-47).

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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Securing from the watch, 1945

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First off, Happy Labor Day.

Here’s to some of the hardest-working yet most unsung folks in WWII.

Official wartime caption: “Coast Guard lookout in Pacific. As a Coast Guard combat cutter skirts an island somewhere in the South Pacific, lookouts keep an unceasing watch for signs of the enemy. Their warnings bring the call to ‘battle stations’ to preserve the safety of the vessel.”

National Archives Identifier 205584962. Local Identifier 26-G-01-10-44(2)

On 1 September 1945 Coast Guard counted 170,480 personnel in uniform, including 9,624 women in the SPARS.

In addition to the 1,677 commissioned Coast Guard vessels in active service at the end of the 1945 fiscal year, Coast Guard personnel on 1 August 1945 were manning 326 Navy craft and 254 Army vessels, with about 50,000 Coast Guard men serving on Navy and 6,000 on Army vessels.

The 351 Navy vessels that the Coast Guard manned during the war included:

  • 22 Transports (AP)
  • 9 Auxiliary Transports (APA)
  • 15 Cargo Ships (AK)
  • 5 Auxiliary Cargo Attack Ships (AKA)
  • 18 Gasoline Tankers (AGO)
  • 28 Landing Craft, Infantry (LCI)(L)
  • 76 Landing Ships, Tanks (LST)
  • 30 Destroyer Escorts (DE) (in five full Escort Divisions)
  • 75 Patrol Frigates (PF)
  • 40 Patrol Vessels (YP)
  • 8 Gunboats or Corvettes (PG)
  • 6 Submarine Chasers (SC)
  • 4 Submarine Chasers, Patrol (PC)
  • 1 Coastal Yacht (PYC)
  • 1 Ferryboat and Launch (YFB)
  • 1 Ambulance Boat (YHB)
  • 1 Gate Vessel (TNG)
  • 1 Range Tender (YF)
  • 1 Motor Torpedo Boat Tender (AGP)
  • 1 Submarine Chaser, Auxiliary (WPC)
  • 1 Auxiliary, Misc. (WAG)
  • 7 Miscellaneous, Unclassified (IX)

Another 2,998 Coast Guard Reserve vessels had been acquired through purchase, charter, or gift, principally to combat the submarine menace along the coasts during the War as the famed “Hooligan Navy.” Still, by September 1945, this number had been whittled down to 336.

The Coast Guard maintained 24 air stations and myriad outlier fields along the coasts of the CONUS United States during the war, under the operational control of the various sea frontiers, with over 300 “fighting” aircraft, mostly PBM-3/5 Mariners (27), Kingfishers (76), PBY-5A/6A Catalinas (114), and at least 10 PB4Y-1 Liberators/P4Y-2G Privateers with smaller numbers of Grumman Duck, Widgeon, and Goose amphibians. Besides ASW patrol, these served as task units in the conduct of air-sea rescue. Assistance was rendered in 686 plane crashes, and 786 lives were saved during the 1945 fiscal year alone, while 5,357 emergency medical cases were transported and 149 obstructions to navigation and derelicts were sighted for removal.

At the same time, at least three USCG Curtiss SB2C-3/4 Helldivers were based at San Diego to patrol the skies offshore for Japanese Fu-Go incendiary balloons. Meanwhile, four huge Consolidated PB2Y-5 Coronados in USCG service were flying on LORAN support missions out of Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco.

More than 92 percent of the 214,000 personnel who served in the Coast Guard during World War II (including 12,846 women) were volunteer Reservists in for the duration, with an additional 125,000 personnel serving in the stateside Temporary Reserve—many of those draft exempt due to war industry jobs and/or age and just looking to “do their part” to protect the beaches and ports. My great-grandfather, 4F due to his age, nonetheless volunteered for the overnight USCG Beach Patrol in Pascagoula, equipped only with a Coleman lantern and a Stevens 12-gauge.

During the war, the USCG sustained a total of 1,918 casualties (one while a Japanese POW), with 639 killed in action and 1,279 wounded.

On December 28, 1945, President Harry S. Truman issued Executive Order 9666, which directed the transfer of the Coast Guard from the Navy back to the Treasury Department, with only its 17,000~ regulars guaranteed a job in the coming days.

Their war was done.

Alaska USCG Ops Get Some Muscle

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The Coast Guard, with 2,500 members assigned to USCG Arctic (formerly the 17th Coast Guard District), has been busy bird-dogging Chinese government research vessels in the region.

We’ve already talked about the China-flagged research ship Xue Long 2 (Snow Dragon 2), which, at 14,300 tons, is China’s first domestically built polar research vessel, poking around the Extended Continental Shelf a couple of weeks ago.

Now, four other Chinese red hulls are poking around as well.

The five Chinese Research Vessels are: Xue Long 2, China-flagged; Shen Hai Yi Hao, China-flagged; Zhong Shan Da Xue Ji Di, Liberia-flagged; Ji Di, China-flagged; and Tan Suo San Hao, China-flagged.

The Zhong Shan Da Xue Ji Di, a Liberian-flagged research vessel, owned and operated by the Chinese University Sun Yat-Sen, as detected by a Coast Guard C-130 Hercules aircraft from Air Station Kodiak. (U.S. Coast Guard courtesy photo) 250805-G-G0200-1001

A C-130J Hercules airplane crew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak responds to a Chinese research vessel operating in the U.S. Arctic as part of Operation Frontier Sentinel Aug. 13, 2025.

A C-130J Hercules airplane crew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak responds to a Chinese research vessel operating in the U.S. Arctic as part of Operation Frontier Sentinel Aug. 13, 2025.

A C-130J Hercules airplane crew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak responds to a Chinese research vessel operating in the U.S. Arctic as part of Operation Frontier Sentinel Aug. 13, 2025.

From USCG PAO Juneau: 

The U.S. Coast Guard detected and responded to two Chinese research vessels operating in the U.S. Arctic and is currently monitoring a total of five similar vessels in or near the U.S Arctic.

On August 5, a C-130J Hercules fixed-wing aircraft from Air Station Kodiak responded to the Chinese research vessels Ji Di and the Zhong Shan Da Xue Ji Di.  Both vessels were transiting northeast in the Bering Sea.

On August 6, the crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Waesche (WMSL 751) again responded to the Zhong Shan Da Xue Ji Di as it was transiting north in the Chukchi Sea above the Arctic Circle, after passing through the Bering Strait.

The C-130 and USCGC Waesche were patrolling under Operation Frontier Sentinel, an operation that responds to adversaries operating in and around Alaskan and U.S. Arctic waters. The U.S. Coast Guard’s responses are intended to counter malign activities, defend sovereign interests, and promote maritime conduct consistent with international law and norms.

The presence of these vessels is consistent with a three-year trend of increased activity from Chinese research vessels operating in the U.S. Arctic. Last year, three Chinese research vessels conducted research operations north of the Bering Strait.

Storis commissioned in Juneau

The new (to the service) “icebreaker” USCGC Storis (WAGB-21) was commissioned in Juneau on Sunday.

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Storis (WAGB 21) remains moored during the Storis commissioning ceremony at Juneau, Alaska, August 10, 2025. Storis is the first polar icebreaker acquired in more than 25 years by the Coast Guard, with its mission to assure access to the polar regions and protect U.S. sovereignty. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Carmen Caver)

Taking the name of the legendary 2,000-ton/230-foot WWII-era icebreaker USCGC Storis (WAGL/WAG/WAGB/WMEC-38), which had a 64-year career, much of it in Alaska waters, the new 12,800-ton 360-foot cutter is much different but at the same time, more capable in many ways.

Sadly, although she was commissioned in Alaska and is to be stationed there, Storis will be shifting back to Seattle, where she is chilling with the USCG’s other icebreakers until a berth can be finished for her in 2026-27.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard’s $4.3 billion Polar Security Cutter (PSC) heavy polar icebreaker program has had all three of its vessels fully funded— although it will probably be half a decade before the class leader is delivered and commissioned.

Going past that class, three to five new medium polar icebreakers called Arctic Security Cutters (ASCs) are on the drawing board, giving the service eight modern icebreakers to replace its current three (the 50-year-old heavy USCGC Polar Star, the 26-year-old medium breaker USCGC Healy, and the ersatz Storis).

$3.5 billion for the first three Arctic Security Cutters has been fully funded under H.R. 1.

The Coast Guard’s future Arctic Security Cutter (ASC), as many as five of which may be built “someday”

New Sentinel clocks in

The fifth of six planned new 154-foot Sentinel (Webber) class Fast Response Cutters is slated to be commissioned at Kodiak’s fuel pier on Monday after self-deploying over 7,000nm from her builder in Louisiana.

The crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Earl Cunningham (WPC 1159) arrives at their homeport in Kodiak, Alaska, May 31, 2025. This was the first time the cutter had arrived at its homeport following its construction in Lockport, Louisiana. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Shannon Kearney)

Cunningham will be homeported in Kodiak with USCGC John Witherspoon (WPC 1158), which arrived in January. Meanwhile, they have a trio of Ketchikan-based sisters: USCGC John McCormick (WPC-1121)— the first Sentinel-class stationed in Alaska in 2017– USCGC Anthony Petit, and USCGC Bailey Barco. They all replaced smaller, cramped 110-foot Island-class cutters, which dated back to the Reagan Administration.  

The Coast Guard commissioned its newest cutter, Coast Guard Cutter Earl Cunningham (WPC 1159), for official entry into its service fleet during a ceremony held in Kodiak, Alaska, Aug. 11, 2025. The ceremony was presided over by Adm. Kevin Lunday, acting commandant of the Coast Guard, and members of the Cunningham family were also in attendance, including the cutter’s sponsor, Penney Helmer, who is also the granddaughter of Earl Cunningham. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by PA3 Carmen Caver)

Armament includes a Mk 38 Mod 2 25mm gun forward and four flex mounts for M2 .50 caliber BMGs (or anything else that can be put on those pintles) along with assorted small arms. These vessels have been operating small UAVs as of late.

The sixth FRC headed to Alaska, the future USCGC Frederick Mann (WPC 1160), was delivered by Bollinger last month and should arrive in Alaskan waters in the coming weeks.
With 67 FRCs contracted by the USCG, and six now serving in the Persian Gulf, the service is negotiating with Bollinger for another 10-to-12 of these hardy vessels.

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.

Warship Wednesday, July 30, 2025: Ocean Station Savior

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”

Warship Wednesday, July 30, 2025: Ocean Station Savior

Above we see the 255-foot Owasco-class gunboat, U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Pontchartrain (WPG-70) during rough weather while slogging along in the Pacific, 8 January 1950.

Commissioned during the last days of WWII, some 80 years ago this week, “Ponch” had a lengthy career that included lots of dreary service on Ocean Stations (13 of those shifts during Korea), a Vietnam Market Time deployment, and numerous rescues at sea– including one that was spectacular.

The 255s

The Coast Guard got seriously ripped off by the White House in early 1941 when 10 of its best (and newest) blue water cutters, the entire 250-foot Lake (Chelan) class, were transferred to the Royal Navy as part of FDR’s “Bases for Destroyers” deal. These hardy 2,000-ton turbine-powered low-mileage cutters became Banff-class sloops in RN service and saw lots of service, with three lost during the war and a fourth damaged so badly she was scrapped in the Philippines.

A splendid example of the 250-foot Lake class cutters, USCGC Pontchartrain (WPG-46) and USCGC Chelan (WPG-45), seen on 30 September 1937. Under the canvas awnings are a 5″/51 forward, a 3″/50 aft, and two 6-pounders. 

By 1942, with it apparent that the old Lakes would likely never return from overseas (at least not for years) and the U.S. firmly in the war, the USCG moved to build a replacement class of ten ships. To this number was added another three hulls, to finally replace the ancient cutters Ossipee (165 ft, circa 1915), Tallapoosa (165 ft, circa 1915), and Unalaga (190 ft, circa 1912).

Originally a 312-foot design that was a simplified follow-on to the service’s seven well-liked turbine-powered 327-foot Treasury (Campbell) class cutters, which had a provision to carry a JF-2/SOC-4 floatplane as well as two 5″/51s and ASW gear, this soon morphed into a much more compact 255-foot hull with an even heavier armament. The 255-foot oal guideline (245 at the waterline) conceivably allowed them to pass through the then 251-foot third lock of the Welland Canal in Ontario if needed, so they could operate on the Great Lakes at some future date.

The 1945 outfit for the class was twin 5″/38 DP mounts fore and aft, backed up by two quad 40mm Bofors, a Hedgehog ASWRL, two depth charge racks, and six K-guns. Overloaded already in such an arrangement, there was never a floatplane fitted, although the superstructure was divided into two islands to allow a midship location on deck for such a contraption.

While most carried SR and SU radar sets, Mendota and Pontchartrain carried more updated SC-4 and SF-1 radar sets. They all carried a QJA sonar set and Mk 26 FCS.

255 class leader CGC Owasco (WPG-39) off San Pedro, California. 18 July 1945. Note the short hull, packed with twin 5″/38s fore and aft as well as ASW gear and Bofors mounts.

Powered by twin Foster-Wheeler 2 drum top-fired Express boilers and a 3,200 kVa Westinghouse electric motor driven by a turbine, these cutters were good for 19 knots but could sail 10,000nm at 10 knots economically on 141,755 gallons of fuel oil, giving them extremely long legs. Able to navigate in three fathoms of sea water, they could get into tight spaces.

As detailed by the USCG Historian’s Office:

The 255-foot class was an ice-going design. Ice operations had been assigned to the Coast Guard early in the war, and almost all new construction was either ice-going or icebreaking.

The hull was designed with constant flare at the waterline for ice-going. The structure was longitudinally framed with heavy web frames and an ice belt of heavy plating, and it had extra transverse framing above and below the design water line. Enormous amounts of weight were removed using electric welding. The 250-foot cutters’ weights were used for estimating purposes. Tapered bulkhead stiffeners cut from 12” I-beams went from the main deck (4’ depth of web) to the bottom (8” depth of web). As weight was cut out of the hull structure, electronics and ordnance were increased, but at much greater heights. This top weight required ballasting the fuel tanks with seawater to maintain stability both for wind and damaged conditions.

Eleven of the class were to be built on the West Coast at the Western Pipe and Steel Company in San Pedro, California, with the first, Sebago, laid down on 7 June 1943.

Cost per hull was $4,239,702 in 1945 dollars.

Meet “Raunchy Paunchy”

Our subject is the second USCGC Pontchartrain, following in the footsteps of a circa 1928 Lake-class cutter which, transferred to Royal Navy 30 April 1941 as part of the Bases for Destroyers deal, entered service as HMS Hartland (Y00) and, 17 convoys later, was sunk by the French during Operation Reservist, the effort to seize the port of Oran as part of the Torch landings 19 months later.

While there was one CSS Pontchartrain on the Mississippi (for obvious reasons) during the Civil War, the U.S. Navy has never used the name.

One of only two 255s built on the East Coast at the USCG Yard in Curtis Bay, Maryland (alongside sister USCGC Mendota, WPG-69), WPG-70 was the final Owasco-class cutter laid down by hull number, but far from the last completed. They were part of the initial six ships laid down in 1943, while the other eight all had their keels laid down in 1944. Both WPG-69 and WPG-70 were laid down on 5 July 1943.

Launched as Okeechobee on 29 February 1944, our subject was commissioned as USCGC Pontchartrain on 28 July 1945. Had the war not ended six weeks later, she surely would have made for the Panama Canal by Halloween and seen service in the Pacific with her sisters.

Eight of her 12 sisters were completed after VJ Day.

USCGC Pontchartrain (WHEC-70) Aug 1945

USCGC Pontchartrain (WHEC-70) Sep 1945. Note the split superstructure

Not destined to join Halsey for the push on Tokyo, Pontchartrain instead clocked in on a series of more than a dozen Ocean Stations, mid-way navigation, weather, and SAR points set up post-war to help trans-oceanic flights stay on path. Usually a three-week deployment, it was thankless and, on the very beamy 255s, sometimes one heck of a ride punctuated by regular twice-daily weather balloon launches, 450-foot bathythermograph drops every four hours, and an unceasing radio check.

The cutters steamed an average of 4,000 miles per patrol, and, with transit time included, staffed the station for an average of 700 non-stop hours.

One crew member noted: “After twenty-one days of being slammed around by rough, cold sea swells 20 to 50 feet high, and wild winds hitting gale force at times, within an ocean grid the size of a postage stamp, you can stand any kind of duty.”

Pontchartrain sister, the 255-ft. U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba, based in New Bedford, Massachusetts, takes a salty shower bath in rough North Atlantic weather on ocean station ‘Delta’, 650 miles southeast of Newfoundland and east of Nova Scotia

For the record, as noted by Scheina, Pontchartrain stood the lonely guard on 61 occasions:

Atlantic, while stationed at Boston and Norfolk:

  • 20 Oct-10 Nov 46 served on OS C
  • 6-11 Nov 48 served on OS Easy
  • 23 Jan-12 Feb 49 served on OS B
  • 18 Mar-8 Apr 49 served on OS Fox
  • 17 May-7 Jun 49 served on OS Easy
  • 17 Jul-6 Aug 49 served on OS Dog

Pacific, while stationed at Long Beach:

*During the Korean War:

  • Feb-13 Mar 50 served on OS Oboe
  • 14 May-5 Jun 50 served on OS Peter
  • 4-27 Aug 50 served on OS Nan*
  • 6-26 Mar 51 served on OS Sugar*
  • 13 Apr-5 May 51 served on OS Nan*
  • 8-29 Jul 51 served on OS Nan*
  • 21-29 Oct 51 served on OS Nan*
  • Nov-2 Dec 51 served on OS Nan*
  • 23 Dec 51-13 Jan 52 served on OS Uncle*
  • 23 Feb-16 Mar 52 served on OS Sugar*
  • 5-25 Apr 52 served on OS Sugar*
  • 29 Jun-20 Jul 52 served on OS Nan*
  • 22 Sep-12 Oct 52 served on OS Nan*
  • 28 Jan-18 Feb 53 served on OS Victor*
  • 30 Mar-20 Apr 53 served on OS Sugar*
  • 2-23 Jul 53 served on OS Uncle*
  • 25 Oct-15 Nov 53 served on OS Uncle
  • 28 Feb-10 Mar 54 served on OS Nan
  • 25 Jul-15 Aug 54 served on OS Nan
  • 17 Oct-7 Nov 54 served on OS Nan
  • 19 Dec 54-10 Jan 55 served on OS Nan
  • 15 May-5 Jun 55 served on OS Nan
  • 18 Sep-8 Oct 55 served on OS Nan
  • 12 Feb-4 Mar 5 served on OS November
  • 8-28 Jul 56 served on OS November
  • 30 Sep-16 Oct 56 served on OS November
  • 21 Dec 56-13 Jan 57 served on OS November
  • 13 May-9 Jun 57 served on OS November
  • 22 Sep-13 Oct 57 served on OS November
  • 17 Feb-8 Mar 58 served on OS November
  • 13 Jul-3 Aug 58 served on OS November
  • 14 Oct-4 Nov 58 served on OS Romeo
  • 7-28 Dec 58 served on OS November
  • 18 Jan-7 Feb 59 served on OS November
  • 27 Sep-17 Oct 59 served on OS November
  • 20 Feb-12 Mar 60 served on OS November
  • 1 16 Jul-6 Aug 60 served on OS November
  • 11-31 Dec 60 served on OS November
  • 7-27 May 61 served on OS November
  • 10-31 Mar 68 served on OS November
  • 12 May-2 Jun 68 served on OS November
  • 14 Jul-4 Aug 68 served on OS November
  • 25 Aug-15 Sep 68 served on OS November
  • 19 Jan-9 Feb 69 served on OS Victor
  • 2-23 Mar 69 served on OS Victor
  • 25 May-14 Jun 69 served on OS November
  • 17 Aug-7 Sep 69 served on OS November
  • 30 Nov- 18 Dec 69 served on OS November
  • 22 Aug-12 Sep 71 served on OS Victor
  • 3-24 Oct 71 served on OS Victor
  • 8-28 Jun 72 served on OS Charlie
  • 15 Aug-8 Sep 72 served on OS Delta
  • 29 Jan-23 Feb 73 served on OS Echo
  • 24 Apr-17 May 73 served on OS Delta
  • 6-26 Sep 73 served on OS Charlie

During this service, her appearance changed significantly.

Laid up from 17 October 1947 to 5 September 1948 as the service ran into post-war budget cuts, she emerged from Curtis Bay with most of her armament removed. Gone were the twin 5-inchers, replaced by a single mount forward. Also deleted were her aft Bofors and all her ASW weapons save for Hedgehog. This nearly halved her complement from over 250 to 130.

USCGC Pontchartrain circa 1958. Note her single 5″/38 DP, with her open Hedgehog and last 40mm Bofors quad mount behind

Pan American Flight 6

It was while on Ocean Station November that our cutter, on 16 October 1956, stood by Pan American World Airways’ Flight 6, Boeing 377 Stratocruiser N90943, the “Sovereign of the Skies,” as she pulled off a water landing while en route from Honolulu to San Francisco.

The clipper, under the command of Pan Am Capt. Richard N. Ogg, with 31 souls aboard, was quickly running out of fuel with a windmilling No. 1 prop and a shutdown No. 4 engine, while still some 250nm out from the California coast.

Nearing OS November, Ogg radioed Pontchartrain, under CDR William K. Earle (USCGA 1940), who provided sea state and weather data to bring the clipper down easily.

The cutter then made ready for SAR and laid a trail of foam to mark the best course, a wet “runway” on the Pacific.

Coast Guard sailors aboard the United States Coast Guard Cutter (USCGC) Pontchartrain use foam from firehoses to lay down a “runway” for Flight 6

The clipper ditched less than 2,000 yards away, just after sunrise.

As noted by This Day in Aviation:

At 6:15 a.m., at approximately 90 knots air speed, the Boeing 377 landed on the water. A wing hit a swell, spinning the airplane to the left. The tail broke off, and the airplane began to settle.

Injuries were minor, and all passengers and crew evacuated the airliner. They were immediately picked up by Pontchartrain.

Captain Ogg and Purser Reynolds were the last to leave the airplane.

Twenty minutes after touching down, at 6:35 a.m., Sovereign of the Skies sank beneath the ocean’s surface.

A USCG film about the incident, including original footage.

Besides Pan Am Flight 6, Pontchartrain escorted the disabled American M/V John C (1950), assisted the disabled F/V Nina Ann (1955), assisted USS LSM-455 aground on San Clemente Island, the disabled yacht Gosling, and the disabled F/V Modeoday (1957), aided the disabled yacht Intrepid (1958), the F/V Carolyn Dee (1959), went to the assistance of M/V Mamie and rescued three from the ketch Alpha (1960), medevaced a patient from USNS Richfield (1961), and assisted the disabled F/V Gaga (1963).

She was a lifesaver.

She was also a fighter.

War!

A quarter-century after joining the fleet, Pontchartrain was finally sent to combat.

USCGC Pontchartrain (WHEC-70) Jan 1970. Note she has her “racing stripe.”

She was assigned to Coast Guard Squadron Three, working in the Vietnam littoral, from 31 March to 31 July 1970. While her 13 stints on wartime Ocean Stations during the Korean War allowed her crew to earn Korean Service Medals, Vietnam was going to be a deployment of naval gunfire support in the littoral, rather than one of quiet radio and weather watches.

USCGC Wachusett (WHEC-44), a 255-foot Owasco-class cutter, providing some blistering NGFS off Vietnam

By this time, the 255s sported SPS-29 and SPS-51 radars, and some had provision for ASW torpedo tubes abeam of the superstructures, the latter aided by SQS-1 sonars. As such, they had been changed from gunboats to the more friendly “high endurance cutters,” or WHECs.

Jane’s 1965 entry for the 255s

Joining CGRON3’s fifth deployment to Southeast Asia, Pontchartrain was the “old man” teamed up with four brand-new 378-foot gas turbine-powered cutters, USCGC Hamilton, Chase, Dallas, and Mellon. Whereas nine of her sisters had been sent to Vietnam previously, Pontchartrain was the last Owasco to pull the duty.

Pontchartrain NGFS Vietnam 1970 Photo by LeRoy Reinburg

While the individual figures for Pontchartrain aren’t available, the large cutters of CGRON3 conducted no less than 1,368 combined NGFS missions during Vietnam, firing a staggering 77,036 5-inch shells ashore. Keep in mind that most of these cutters only carried about 300 rounds in their magazines, so you can look at that amount of ordnance expended as being something like 250 shiploads.

Check out this deck log for one day in July 1970, with Pontchartrain firing 175 rounds by early afternoon against a mix of targets.

Powder and shell consumption was so high that some cutters would have to underway replenish or VERTREP 2-3 times a week while doing gun ops.

Pontchartrain receiving 5-inch powder cases UNREP Vietnam 1970 Photo by LeRoy Reinburg

At sea off Vietnam. Australian destroyer HMAS Hobart approaching a Mispillion class replenishment oiler USS Passumpsic (AO-107) as it is tanking a Coast Guard 311-foot HEC, likely CGC Pontchartrain. AWM Photo P01904.005 by Peter Michael Oleson.

Returning to Long Beach, Pontchartrain settled back into her normal routine and continued Ocean Station, LE, and SAR work, along with the occasional reservist cruise.

In April 1973, the Coast Guard announced that, in conjunction with the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam and the increased use of satellites, the OS program would be discontinued and 10 aging cutters retired– nine of them 255s. Sisters Sebago and Iroquois had already been put out to pasture.

Pontchartrain decommissioned on 19 October 1973, and by the following May, all her sisters had joined her. They would be sold for scrap before the end of 1974.

Epilogue

Some of Pontchartrain’s logs are digitized in the National Archives.

As for her skipper during the Pan Am Flight 6 rescue, CDR William K. Earle would go on to command the tall ship Eagle during Operation Sail—staged in concert with the 1964 World’s Fair—when 23 such ships assembled in New York Harbor. Retiring as a captain, he penned several articles for Proceedings, was executive director of the USGCA Alumni Association, and editor of the group’s journal. The Association maintains the annual Captain Bill Earle Creative Writing Contest in his honor. Captain Earle passed away in March of 2006.

Sadly, there has not been a third USCGC Pontchartrain.

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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USCG Keeping Tabs on Chinese Icebreaker off Alaska

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The U.S. has long been trying to establish an Extended Continental Shelf in seven offshore areas: the Arctic off Alaska, the Atlantic (east coast), the Bering Sea, the Pacific (west coast), the Mariana Islands, and two areas in the Gulf of America (Gulf of Mexico).

While past the 200nm EEZ, the U.S. ECS seabed stretches as much as 400 miles offshore, protecting exclusive drilling and mining rights in those waters. It’s a real thing under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and the U.S. has been actively mapping these ECS areas since 2003.

And inside our claimed area was recently found the China-flagged research ship Xue Long 2 (Snow Dragon 2), which, at 14,300 tons, is China’s first domestically-built polar research vessel, and only entered service in 2019.

The advanced Finnish-designed vessel, operated by the state-owned Polar Research Institute of China, can accommodate 90 crew and scientists and has helicopter/UAV facilities as well as extensive survey capabilities.

A Coast Guard C-130J Hercules aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak detects and responds to the China-flagged research ship Xue Long 2 on the U.S. Extended Continental Shelf (ECS) in the U.S. Arctic, approximately 290 NM north of Utqiagvik, Alaska, July 25, 2025. The C-130J aircraft was operating under the Coast Guard Arctic District’s Operation Frontier Sentinel, which is designed to meet presence with presence in response to adversary activity in or near Alaskan waters. (U.S. Coast Guard photo courtesy of Air Station Kodiak)

Same as above

As noted by the USCG PAO:

The U.S. Coast Guard detected and responded to the China-flagged research ship Xue Long 2 on the U.S. Extended Continental Shelf (ECS) in the U.S. Arctic, approximately 290 NM north of Utqiagvik, Alaska, on Friday.

A Coast Guard C-130J Hercules fixed-wing aircraft from Air Station Kodiak responded to the Xue Long 2, an icebreaker operated by the Polar Research Institute of China, and 130 NM inside the ECS boundary.

The U.S. has exclusive rights to conserve and manage the living and non-living resources of its ECS.

“The U.S. Coast Guard, alongside partners and other agencies, vigilantly monitors and responds to foreign government vessel activity in and near U.S. waters to secure territorial integrity and defend sovereign interests against malign state activity,” said Rear Adm. Bob Little, Commander of the U.S. Coast Guard Arctic District.

The C-130J aircraft was operating under the Coast Guard Arctic District’s Operation Frontier Sentinel, which is designed to meet presence with presence in response to adversary activity in or near Alaskan waters.

The DOD’s 1981 Handgun Holdings

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According to the House Subcommittee on Investigations at the time, in July 1981, there were 412,339 .45 caliber pistols and 127,745 .38 caliber revolvers in the inventories of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps.

The last procurement of the .45 caliber pistol occurred in 1945. Since that time, the existing inventory has been maintained by rebuilding and reconditioning the worn weapons. Department of Defense witnesses testified that $1.5 million is currently budgeted for the procurement of replacement components for those handguns. They also testified that “field reports indicate that it is reaching the end of its maintainable life.”

The NYT, the previous month, gave the figure as a slightly different 418,000 .45s and 136,000 .38s, which may include guns in USCG inventory not otherwise captured by Navy figures.

As you can see in the article, even then, the Army speculated on selling the surplus guns to the public via the CMP (at the time run by the Army directly under DCM).

Of course, it would take four years before Beretta 92F became the M9 and 37 years before CMP sold the first batch of surplus 1911s to the public in 2018, but I digress.

USCG Updates: Moves in Pacific as Large Cutter Programs Struggle

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There has been a lot of quiet yet noteworthy news concerning the Coast Guard in the past couple of weeks.

Blue Water ops abound

First, it should be noted that things are definitely in motion in the Pacific.

The 49-year-old 210-foot USCGC Resolute (WMEC-620) just arrived back in CONUS yesterday, following a 59-day patrol in the Eastern Pacific under JIATF-South, and offloaded over six tons of coke, showing she is still capable of interdiction duty in blue water.

The crew of USCGC Resolute (WMEC 620) poses for a group photo during a drug offload at Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg, July 17, 2025. Resolute deployed in support of Joint Interagency Task Force-South (JIATF-South), an interagency and international task force that conducts counter-illicit trafficking and security cooperation operations in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Riley Perkofski)

The aging 270-foot Bear-class USCGC Harriet Lane (WMEC 903), the only member of her class stationed on that side of the globe, just wrapped a 73-day 15,000 nm patrol of Oceania around the Hawaiian Islands, French Polynesia, Cook Islands, and American Samoa.

U.S. Coast Guardsmen assigned to medium endurance cutter USCGC Harriet Lane (WMEC 903) prepare to moor the cutter on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, Hawaii, July 9, 2025. The crew returned from a 73-day patrol during which they exercised partnerships with the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, and New Zealand through bilateral maritime law enforcement agreements. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jennifer Nilson)

They did a lot of “hearts and minds” outreach stuff with allied militaries as well as “interagency and Pacific Island partners to reinforce the rules-based international maritime order in the region.”

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Harriet Lane (WMEC 903) approaches the island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands during a passenger transfer and ship resupply on June 13, 2025. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Austin Wiley)

Next, the frigate-sized USCGC Stratton (WMSL 752) has been busy on a Westpac cruise under the control of 7th Fleet’s DESRON 15. With an embarked ScanEagle UAV detachment and Navy/Marine ship riders, she has been conducting in-port and at-sea engagements with Japan Coast Guard (JCG), Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), and other “racing stripe” forces in the region.

The Legend-class U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton (WMSL 752) steams alongside the Japan Coast Guard Patrol Vessel Asanagi (PLH-43) and the Philippine Coast Guard vessel BRP Teresa Magbanua (MRRV-9701) during a trilateral search and rescue exercise in Kagoshima, Japan, June 20, 2025. Stratton is deployed and assigned to Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15, the Navy’s largest DESRON and the U.S. 7th Fleet’s principal surface force. Stratton is deployed to the Indo-Pacific to advance relationships with ally and partner nations to build a more secure and prosperous region with unrestricted, lawful access to the maritime commons. (Japan Coast Guard courtesy photo)

Philippine and Japan Coast Guard members observe a ScanEagle long-endurance unmanned aerial system aboard the Legend-class U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton (WMSL 752) during a trilateral search and rescue exercise in Kagoshima, Japan, June 20, 2025. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Kate Kilroy)

She just arrived in Guam with ship riders of the maritime forces from Australia, India, and Japan aboard, and you can spot a few USN Bluejackets among the crew.

Quad partners from the U.S. Coast Guard, Japan Coast Guard, Australian Border Force, Indian Coast Guard, and the command and crew of the Legend-class U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton (WMSL 752) take a photo on the flight deck during the first Quad at-sea mission while Stratton patrols the Pacific Ocean, July 1, 2025. Stratton is deployed and assigned to Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15, the Navy’s largest DESRON and the U.S. 7th Fleet’s principal surface force. Stratton is deployed to the Indo-Pacific to advance relationships with ally and partner nations to build a more secure and prosperous region with unrestricted, lawful access to the maritime commons. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Kate Kilroy)

Meanwhile, in Alaska, where the USCG counts more than 2,500 active duty, reserve, civilian, and auxiliary personnel, a new (to them) face on the beat has arrived.

The 87-foot USCGC Blacktip (WPB 87326) just reported for duty in her new homeport of Valdez, replacing the recently retired 110-foot Island-class WPB, USCGC Liberty. A key takeaway on that is that she self-deployed there after transiting approximately 2,800 miles.

On an 87-foot boat.

You learn to sail in the Coast Guard, dammit.

Blacktip in Valdez, her new home. A big change from Oxnard. 250708-G-GM914-0001

Speaking of Liberty, the 39-year-old cutter and her two sisters, ex-Mustang (WPB-1310), and Naushon (WPB-1311), completed their final sail, arriving in San Diego from Alaska under USCG crews to be handed over to the Colombian Navy. Other members of the 49-member class have been transferred to Costa Rica, Georgia, Greece, Pakistan, Tunisia, and Ukraine. Only 14 have been scrapped. Not a bad run considering the last unit was delivered from Bollinger in 1992, and they had a 15-year planned lifespan.

A Ukrainian Island-class patrol boat in dazzle camouflage. 2024, with a bit of up-arming from when she was in USCG service. Photo credits: Ukrainian Navy

Also headed to Alaska, eventually, is the recently commissioned “icebreaker” USCGC Storis (WAGB 21), which arrived last week at her temporary homeport in Seattle alongside the service’s other ice crunchers. The service says that “The arrival of Storis marks a milestone in the Coast Guard’s Force Design 2028 initiative and broader Arctic strategy.” She is slated to move to Juneau once a facility is constructed there to berth her.

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Storis (WAGB 21) transits through Puget Sound en route to Coast Guard Base Seattle, July 11, 2025. The newly acquired polar icebreaker will conduct missions in the Arctic and aims to strengthen the U.S. presence in the region. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Annika Hirschler)

Large Cutter Program Blues

And in “whomp-whomp” news to cheer you on down, the Coast Guard recently did what it probably should have done two years ago and canceled the planned Heritage-class offshore patrol cutters (OPCs) number three and four from Panama City’s Eastern Shipbuilding Group.

Still not here: the Heritage-class Offshore Patrol Cutter/Maritime Security Cutter.

The Florida shipyard won a contract for what should have been the first eight of 25 OPCs in 2016, and, almost a decade later, just two are nearing completion. ESG’s delivery of the first OPC, the future USCGC Argus (WMSM-915), was initially due in June 2023 but will now be completed by the end of 2026 (!) at the earliest. The second OPC, the future USCGC Chase (WMSM-916), was supposed to be delivered in April 2024, and no one really knows when that will actually happen.

Odds are that the future USCGC Ingham (WMSM-917) and Rush (WMSM-918) will likely be re-awarded to Austal in Mobile, which is already working on a second flight of eight OPCs itself. The service needs a second yard on board for these.

I would say that nearby Ingalls had the bandwidth to crank out some of these white hulls, but the USCG last month terminated their contract for the 11th and final National Security Cutter last month, clawing back $260 million in long-lead funds already awarded for that long-overdue vessel. The service will use the parts and materials to keep its 10 other Ingalls-built NSCs running.

It’s a shame as the NSCs are the most functional cutters ever to sail under Coast Guard tasking, and, like Stratton above, are a favorite in the Westpac to fill frigate missions that the Navy has few other assets to accomplish.

Meanwhile, the nearly year-old Icebreaker Collaboration Effort (ICE) Pact between the USCG, Finland, and Canada has produced little in the way of concrete results, although Trump said in a news conference recently that the country may buy as many as 15 icebreakers from Finland (hold your breath).

The first modules for the planned U.S. Coast Guard Polar Security Cutter (PSC) were only cleared in April, and that program was awarded in 2019.

Semper paratus, indeed.

Crane Shines on Black Hills

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South Dakota-based Black Hills just picked up a $42 million, five-year contract (below) from Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane for 5.56mm Long Range, Special Ball, MK 262 MOD 1 Ammunition, with the first bite being for the USCG, likely for its MSSF or HITRON guys. This tracks as Black Hills last year got a $30 million contract for 9mm barrier blind cartridges from NSWC Corona.

Introduced in 1999, Black Hills guarantees its 77-grain MK 262 MOD 1, which has a velo of 2750 fps, with sub 2″ groups (.64 MOA maximum/10-shot groups). Commercially packed BH MK 262 rounds “good price” at about $1.42 a round, translating the Crane award to being worth at least 30 million rounds, hopefully more.

The award:

Black Hills Ammunition Inc.,* Rapid City, South Dakota, is awarded a $42,480,300 firm-fixed price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for 5.56mm Long Range, Special Ball, MK 262 MOD 1 Ammunition. This contract does not include options. Work will be performed in Rapid City, South Dakota, and is expected to be completed by July 2030. Fiscal 2025 Ammo Procurement (Coast Guard) funding in the amount of $292,644 will be obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured on the basis of 100% Small Business Set-Aside and two offers were received via the Procurement Integrated Enterprise Environment Solicitation Module. Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, Crane, Indiana, is the contract activity (N0016425DJN13).

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