It's about damn time:
When you mention the U.S. Coast Guard to someone, usually patrolling near America's territorial waters, drug interdiction, and rescuing boaters come to mind, but the reality is that the Coastie's mission ranges far from home and into some pretty nasty neighborhoods. At one time, this reality, combined with a very serious foe, resulted in some of the service's most capable cutters being outfitted with RGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship cruise missiles. Fast forward to today, and we may be on the precipice of another similar sea-change for the service in terms of how heavily armed some of its ships become.
The Coast Guard deploys its ships forward into war zones despite lacking the punch to face potential enemies.
With enemy fleets rising and even small states or terror groups able to pose a sea-based missile threat to our homeland, why would the Coast Guard not join in the parade of anti-ship capabilities we are restoring (from the initial article)?
From American nuclear fast attack submarines being reequipped with Harpoons after decades without them, as well as the new Tactical Tomahawk that has anti-ship capabilities, and even more exotic classified anti-ship missiles, to the USAF working to master the delivery of a new generation of standoff naval mines, to the Navy fielding the stealthy Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), to the F-35 being slated to receive the Joint Strike Missile, to the Army even looking to get into the ship-killing business, a new era of anti-ship missile capabilities is rapidly emerging.
The Coast Guard is an armed service--not (just) a sea-going police force. Arm it up to match the threats it will face.
