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Subject:
Coast guard Blues
PowerPointRanger
3/25/2007 1:02:45 PM
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Today's article "U.S. Coast Guard Running Out of Ships" raises an interesting question: What suitable off-the-shelf ship could the US Coast Guard get?
I've look around, and there isn't much out there. The big problem is that the US Coast Guard faces some rather unique challenges. Among them:
--High speed drug traffic boats
--Open water environment
--Frequent Hurricanes
Because of these peculiarities, most European offerings just don't cut it. They're too slow, have limited range, and not designed for open water.
For other countries (China, Russia, Third World countries), you tend to have quality control issues.
The only thing I found that raised any possibilities was the Visby-class corvette, produced by Sweden. While not built to NATO standards, it was built in collaboration with Northrop-Grumman as a precursor to the Littoral Combat Ship program. It's weaponry is probably not what a US Coast Guard cutter would need (torpedoes, anti-ship missiles, and mines), but such things could probably be removed from the design without too much trouble (or restored if the vessel were ever used as an escort in a time of war). The gun at 57mm is probably too big. Again, this could be replaced without too much trouble.
The big plus for this ship is it's speed (>35 knots), its ability to carry a helicopter, and integrated communications. The stealthy design, while its not necessarily applicable to a Coast Guard mission, it doesn't hurt if you're going after drug smugglers. It is probably a bit expensive for what the Coast Guard wants to do ($184 million each), but if you're going buy 20-40, it will probably bring down the coast. In fact, if the Coast Guard collaborated with the US Navy (in the same way the Navy and Air Force collaborated on the F-35), the Navy might use a Visby-type design as a replacement for their Littoral Combat Ship (which has had problems with price overruns).
The Coast Guard urgently needs to replace almost all 88 ships of its current fleet and the Navy want a large number of LCS-type ships. A collaboration to buy 100+ of these ships would certainly bring down the costs.
I know it's a bit of a stretch, but I don't see much else out there. Anyone else have some ideas? |
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