Monday, May 12, 2008

Blogging about the National Security Cutters
Posted by Peter A. Stinson

Now that the Coast Guard has taken possession of BERTHOLF, perhaps some people thought the blogosphere noise would die down. Not so.

Ken Talton, posting at Brickmuppet Blog, notes that while I've felt a bit played, he is "respectfully in disagreement." Says Mr. Talton,

Here is the deal. The Coast Guard bought a super whammodyne cutter some time ago. Named after the first Commandant of the Coast Guard, it is the largest vessel other than icebreakers the USCG has ever purchased.

It is bigger than a Perry Class frigate, has an innovative stern launch arrangement for its boats. It can conduct helicopter operations in Sea State 6. It brings together all the lessons learned from over 2 centuries of institutional expertise. It is ...on paper...a spectacular vessel.

Mr. Talton goes on to tell us a little from a flag officer visit:

A few weeks ago Admiral Rosa came and talked to our unit about various Coast Guard issues, inspected the troops and took questions.

Naturally, Deepwater came up.

The Admiral said that the aviation component of the Deepwater Program was proceeding quite well but that there had been many expensive lessons learned on the maritime side.

We were told that the structural issues on Bertholf were rather overblown and would not affect seaworthiness or safety and that the C4I issue was in fact the big problem. The ship will commission though it will take a long time to get the C4I stuff TEMPEST certified. The vessel is still a useful asset and will be capable of doing Search And Rescue and other operations without TEMPEST standards being met.

I guess that's my primary concern: We're not hearing the same story from all the Coast Guard leaders. Admiral Rosa tells a station's crew "the C4I issue was in fact the big problem," and yet from inside the Beltway we're told there's nothing wrong; pay no attention to the man behind the mirror.

Also at Mr. Talton's blog, he wonders, What could we buy for 6 NSC's? Comparison shoping... Some great thinking that got Galrahn over at Information Dissemination thinking, Is Fighting Small With Small Appropriate?

Posted on Monday, May 12, 2008
   

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