Saturday, April 27, 2019

The Coast Guard Queen

The Coast Guard does have missions abroad that help our foreign policy without the grey hulls of the Navy. But the Coast Guard is stretched thin. It could use help.

This is a good mission to carry out:

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Thetis (WMEC-910) is halfway through a 90-day mission to Africa’s Atlantic coast and already the crew has helped enforce fishing rights, combat smuggling and piracy and rescue two fishermen who had been declared dead.

I wonder if a modularized auxiliary cruiser along the lines of "The AFRICOM Queen" which I described in Military Review could be fitted out with helicopters and drones and serve as a mother ship for smaller vessels. The ship could carry out those missions that Thetis carried out instead of using the ships that could be used in home waters.

The auxiliary cruiser could also be armed and would have greater endurance to remain on station. Just a thought.

And we'd have to paint the ship white with red and blue stripes, of course.