Tag Archives: japanese ghost ship

Coast Guard Updates: Islands fading, SLEP’ing Bears, and OPC gains steam

Posted on by 5 comments

From the DHS/USCGC FY2023 Budget book are a few gems including the drawdown of the once-mighty 49-ship strong Island-class 110-foot patrol boats— built between 1985-1992– the fact that at least one of the circa 1960s 210-foot Reliance-class cutters will decommission soon, and one of the 13 crews of the circa 1980s 270-foot Bear-class cutters will be disbanded as the class undergoes a Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) process to continue service for another decade (or two) as the Offshore Patrol Cutter comes onboard.

Islands

We’ve talked a bunch about the Islands in past years, and they deserve it, as they are great boats. The planned drawdown leaves just five Island-class cutters in domestic waters, three in New England and two in the Pacific Northwest, areas where smaller 87-foot boats have a tougher go of it:

USCGC Key Largo (WPB-1324) is based in Gloucester, Mass 


USCGC Sitkinak (WPB-1329) is based in Portland, Maine 


USCGC Tybee (WPB-1330) is based in Woods Hole, Mass


USCGC Cuttyhunk (WPB-13) is based in Port Angeles, Washington


USCGC Anacapa (WPB-1335) is based in Petersburg, Alaska

The cutter Anacapa tied up at the Coast Guard’s mooring in Petersburg in April 2022 Joe Viechnicki KFSK

Of note, Anacapa is somewhat famous, having sunk by NGF a Japanese “zombie trawler” a few years back.

Now THAT’S Homeland Security! ( USCG D17 photo)

Cuttyhunk is set to decommission this week– on Thursday 5 May– after 33 years of service and will be replaced at Port Angeles by Anacapa who just shipped down there from Alaska, where she has, in turn, been based for the past 32 years.

A snippet of Cuttyhunk’s long and distinguished career: 

Over the past 34 years of service, Cuttyhunk’s crew conducted a wide range of operations. The cutter’s crews completed over 1,000 operations ranging from law enforcement boardings to search and rescue responses throughout the Pacific Northwest. Cuttyhunk assisted U.S. Naval Base Kitsap Bangor in several submarine escorts before Coast Guard Maritime Force Protection Unit Bangor was established to ensure the safe transport of Ship Submersible Ballistic Submarines.

Nicknamed “The Pest of the West”, Cuttyhunk assisted in one of the largest maritime drug seizures in the Pacific Northwest, near Cape Flattery, Washington, in December of 1997. More than 3,500 pounds of marijuana, estimated at a street value of $15 million, was recovered from the OK Jedi, a 60-foot sailboat with three people onboard.

And then there were four.

Bears in hibernation

The Coast Guard has a habit of doing most of their repair, modernization, and SLEP work in-house, at the Government-owned CGY in Maryland. If only the Navy had such a program, right?

Anyway, USCGC Seneca (WMEC-906), commissioned in 1987, is the sixth of the 270-foot Bear-class cutters completed but is the first to complete its nine-month SLEP. Besides hull work in drydock, this included replacing generators and updating systems throughout the ship.

Incidentally, the Coast Guard Yard has been the DOD’s primary supporter of the MK 75 76mm gun, as everything that carried the old OTO Melera Super Rapid in the U.S. Navy (FFG-7, PHM, etc) has been decommissioned.

Bear-class cutter USCGC Thetis with her new (to her) MK 75

Changeout of CGC THETIS’ MK75 using a previously-overhauled MK75 this month at the CG Yard

Offshore Patrol Cutter

Fast facts:
• Class: Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC) Heritage-class (WMSM)
• Weight: 4,320 tons
• Length: 360 feet
• Beam: 54 feet
• Speed: 22.5 knots
• Armory: Mark 110 57mm Bofors rapid-fire gun, Mark 38 MOD 3 25mm autocannon with 7.62mm chaingun over the helicopter hangar, remote and crew-served .50 caliber M2HB heavy machine gun mounts
• Crew: up to 126

Panama City’s Eastern Shipbuilding Group is celebrating the award of the fourth Heritage Class offshore patrol cutter (OPC), the future USCGC Rush (WMSM 918), as Hull# 309A last week. The Coast Guard plans to field as many as 25 of the new 360-footers to replace both the 210-foot Reliance and 270-foot Bear-class cutters.

The three other OPCs under contract to ESG, all in various states of construction:

Hull# 302A: WMSM-915: USCGC Argus
Hull# 305A: WMSM-916: USCGC Chase
Hull# 307A: WMSM-917: USCGC Ingham

What about 200 rounds of 25mm will do

Posted on by 2 comments

The Japanese ghost ship, former squid fishing trawler the 164-foot Ryou-Un Maru, after she was on the bad end of a one-way shootout with the coast guard cutter USCGC Anacapa, a 110-foot Island Class patrol Boat about 180 miles off the Alaska Coast

Now THATS Homeland Security ! ( USCG D17 photo)

The  Ryou-Un Maru, a possibly radioactive derelict has been afloat on a lonely 4000+ mile, 51-week journey across the Pacific since being swept to sea unmanned and empty after last years Tsunami in Japan.

She is now in 6,072  feet of water

USCG news release-
JUNEAU, Alaska — The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Anacapa successfully sank the derelict fishing vessel Ryou-Un Maru 180 miles west of the Southeast Alaskan coast today at 6:15 p.m.

The Anacapa crew began its operation to sink the vessel at approximately 1 p.m. and completed two gunnery evolutions shooting highly explosive ammunition into the vessel until it sank in 6,072 feet of water.

“For the safety of mariners, sinking the vessel was the quickest way to properly address the danger this unattended vessel posed,” said Capt. Daniel Travers, Coast Guard District 17 Incident Manager. “The Anacapa crew did an outstanding job safely completing their mission.”

The Coast Guard worked closely with federal, state and local agencies to assess the immediate dangers the vessel presented and determined that sinking the vessel at sea would be the best course of action to help minimize any navigation and environmental threats. Light sheening and minimal debris have been reported from the sinking of the vessel, and the sheening is expected to quickly dissipate at sea.

USN Data sheet on the Mk38 25mm gun
MK 38 – 25 mm machine gun system

25mm cannon. The Army uses the same gun on the Bradley fighting vehicle. The USN and USCG use it for small-boat defense (say against attacking Iranian speedboats etc) .....from the look of the picture above, id say it works.

Description
The MK-38 is a 25-mm machine gun, with an effective range of 2,000 yards (Mod 2).

Background
The MK 38 was first employed aboard combatant and auxiliary ships conducting Mid-East Force escort operations and during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. MK 38 Mod 1s are maintained in a rotatable pool for temporary installation aboard deployed ships. Following the October 2000 attack on USS Cole (DDG 67), Task Force Hip Pocket identified an improved MK 38 Machine Gun System (MGS) as a means to increase shipboard self defense against small boat threats. In 2003, the Chief of Naval Operations documented the requirement and directed the development and fielding of the MK 38 Mod 2. Installed aboard CG, DDG, FFG, LSD, LPD, LHD, LHA, LCC, PC, OSV, and USCG FRC class ships and planned for installation aboard CVN, AS, and MK VI class ships, the MK 38 Mod 2 MGS is a low cost, stabilized self defense weapon system that dramatically improves shipboard self defense.

General Characteristics
Primary Function: (Mod 1) Single barrel, air cooled, semi- and full-automatic, manually trained and elevated machine gun system.
Contractor: Contractor Mod 1: Designed and assembled by Crane Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center; components procured from various contractors.
Date Deployed: 1986.
Contractor Mod 2: BAE Systems Minneapolis, MN; Rafael, Haifa, Israel.
Date Deployed: 2005; 166 systems installed as of Oct. 2011.
Date Deployed: 1986.
Range: 2000 yards (effective range)
Type Fire: Single shot; 180 rounds per minute automatic.
Caliber: 25 mm (1 inch).
Guidance System: Mod 1: N/A,unstabilized, manually trained and elevated.