Posted on 12/01/2006 4:14:26 PM PST by devane617
KEY WEST - The U.S. Coast Guard, one of the key lines of defense in the Florida Straits on homeland security, drug smuggling and migrant interdictions, took eight of its 10 Key West-based patrol cutters out of action indefinitely Thursday because of structural problems.
The decision, announced by the Coast Guard's top commander, Adm. Thad Allen, who flew to Key West to tell crews personally, will create a hole in surveillance and law enforcement of the Florida Straits at a potentially critical time, with the failing health of Fidel Castro.
''I would say there is no good time for this,'' said Commander Brendan C. McPherson, a spokesman for the admiral.
Allen, the commandant of the Coast Guard and former commander of District 7, which includes Key West, said a contingency plan is in the works to ensure that the hole is filled.
''We know we require a credible presence in the Straits of Florida,'' he said. ``No matter what happens [with the fleet], there will be a credible presence in the Straits of Florida.''
The eight cutters -- the Atty, Manitou, Matagorda, Metompkin, Monhegan, Nunivak, Padre and Vashon -- were tied up at the Key West Coast Guard base Thursday. Allen said he did not know if the cutters will sail again.
Their crews -- the cutters normally carry 16 -- will be reassigned, many to double up with crews on other boats, Allen said.
''These are really proud sailors and to have their cutters tied to the dock is a hard thing to take,'' said Chris O'Neil, Coast Guard spokesman for District 7. 'But we are a military organization and take our orders, say `Aye, aye' and press on. We're there to save lives and protect the country and we're going to do that regardless of the platform available to us.''
Allen said he knows firsthand that under normal circumstances there can't be a drop in patrolling of the waters between the United States and Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. A sudden mass migration, he said, would be a ''totally different scenario'' and the Coast Guard and other agencies would deploy all necessary resources to the area.
UPGRADE AT FAULT
The eight patrol boats were part of the Coast Guard's $24 billion modernization program called Deepwater, which replaces or updates the aging fleet of boats and aircraft.
The 110-foot cutters were converted to 123 feet, to add an automated small-boat launch and make room for additional communications and navigation systems. The plan was to convert all 49 of the 110-foot cutters.
McPherson said the modifications were meant to tide the Coast Guard over while new patrol boats are designed. ''These patrol boats were already at the end of their life cycles,'' he said.
But the conversions stopped in June 2005 when problems began to show up: decks cracked, hulls deformed and shafts became misaligned shortly after they came out of the repair yards in 2004.
Coast Guard engineers, joined by counterparts from Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, which were awarded the Deepwater contract, tried to correct the problems. During this time, the boats' use in heavy seas was limited.
But when additional problems began to crop up, Allen decided to dock the boats for a more thorough review.
''This is kind of a bittersweet moment for us,'' he said. ``These cutters were converted as part of the initial Deepwater project and have the technology and capability on them that the folks down here love.''
PROTECTION PLANS
The patrol boats serve multiple missions, including search-and-rescue, migrant interdiction, drug interdiction, fisheries enforcement, general law enforcement and recreational boating safety.
Allen said each cutter was expected to operate about 2,500 hours a year. Now Key West is left with just two operating cutters, an 87-footer and a 110-footer. But cutters from other areas of the country routinely patrol the Florida Straits.
Options to pick up the slack include relocating vessels, authorizing more hours for other boats and increasing air surveillance.
The Coast Guard has about 250 cutters and 200 aircraft around the country, with 52 cutters and 39 aircraft assigned to District 7, which covers Florida.
Thanks for the updates. Sounds like they quality of the work is up to par provided they actually used the design talent on hand. I would think that adding a chunk of steel to amy ship that already has a keel is not as easy as it sounds. Mayne the CG just had hopeful thoughts as to the outcome of their upgrades and didn't look closely at the downside.
I'll go you one better. I remember the Goats...the old Grumman Albatross amphibian. It could fly low, slow and forever...through all kinds of weather. Towards the end of their service life they were prohibited from water landings they were so worn out.
So what did we replace the Goat with? The freaking Gulf Stream; a high flying, fast, limited range, twin engine jet...which ONLY just happened to be a trainer for many major airlines.
Thank God we still have the C-130...probably replace them with Airbus passenger jets.
As for the 270's...I don't want to get started.
I actually did used to write quite a bit they were articles about the early days of the Coast Guard; Revenue Cutter Service, Life Saving Service and Lighthouse Service. For some years the 17th District (Alaska) used to list me as their historian.
During Able Manner the Gulfstreams would deliver newspapers and videos by airdrop, always had to send the small boat after it. The Herc would usually put it on the flightdeck or bounce it off the hull, pretty impressive. 10 grand an hour to deliver the paper.
CWOJackson, Not many people posses the knowledge and writing ability that you have. Good stores about the USCG would sell as well or better than TC's stories about the defunct reds. I bet that keyboard will start calling you name every time you pass. :-)
Expect snow in Miami for Christmas. Kilos and kilos of it.
Age old greed has taken over government. National policy and representation of We The People has shifted from the voice of the people to the decisions made in corporate board rooms. Defense production is just one of many effected areas but also one of the most critical. The average American does not understand what it takes to build, trucks, planes, ships, ammo.
The one corporate giant who has the most influence on our daily lives though are insurance companies. This isn't Tin Foil theory look at all the laws passed from 1950's-today. Almost every single aspect of our lives now is regulated by this. Everyone excepts it as being good. No person today thanks to such laws can likely go a day without breaking one law definitely not a week.
Defense production wise some of it is the faults of Trade Unions. People stopped be content with an honest livable wage and were making demands the economy could not support. If that wasn't bad enough along comes such agencies as the EPA. Steel Mills are the most crucial industry for national defense. Once thriving they suddenly were finding it hard to be in federal compliance. To forge steel it takes force draft furnaces. That means either using Natural Gas or Coal. Coal is the cheapest and we still have a lot of it. Nobody wants to fight the tight federal laws. The only agencies that can afford to be in compliance is federal ones. TVA is a good example of it.
I'm gonna cut right to it. If we don't do a substantial turn around within the next decade we could find ourselves becoming a third world nation not only on national defense but living standards. Russia despite all her corruption and problems was not quite as foolish as we were after the Cold War. Their factories are shuttered and not now a strip mall or planned community. The same with their military bases. The basic machinery is still there as well so are the trained craftsmen. All they need is cash.
The Middle East oil producing nations are rich and have a high cash flow but no really substantial military might beyond low tech operations. A few exceptions sure but not many.
One M.E. agreement with Russia for defense for dollars could literally have her defense industry back on it's feet while we would still be trying to mine ores and build back factories. It's that serious. That is also one reason the Alaska MWR needs to be opened up for oil. Our survival depends on it. No oil and we do not eat. Our enemies can sink us economically and the first to do it may well be China even via the the M.E. nations. China can't into march here but China sure can march into the Middle East and so can Russia and even the newly formed EU as well. I think you understand what I'm saying. A war is being planned.
I think the idea that Europe is on the verge of freedoms much like the U.S. is not going to happen like it was envisioned. But rather a major portion will come under one ruler likely of the socialist leaning. Due to corruption Socialism or a variant may also again replace the Russian government and the people like before will welcome it back with open arms.
Free Trade is one thing. What's going on is anything but free trade and National Economical Suicide is quite another. It is not Free Trade when the capabilities of our nation production for self defense and even our basic needs is mostly outsourced.
CWO-
Your story of the launching of the Healy is funny (but sad that the 'wheels' still don't show much in brainpower)---things really have not changed much in 60 odd years--we had the same 'wits' then and you must have their sons and daughters and some of their grandkids as well---
I thought that regardless of technology on a major ship you should have at least two people at a time standing watch because it's exhausting, boring work and you can't rely on just one person to be 100%.
Is that not so from your direct operational experience?
Interesting story about that Holland America guy, too. I hear so many people saying the profit motive is bad for safety but your ships have to be able to operate in order to make a profit! Sounds like he prefers working for a profit-making company to the ossified Coast Guard.
D
Absolutley not, having served on a patrol boat the last place you want to be is in 20ft seas at night with a misaligned shaft or cracked deck. Now you have 16 more sailors in harms way.
The designers are ultimately responsible for this. Many times we had to make due with what we had but not to the extent that our lives were expendable.
Government incompetence, again, and again, and again.
Why in the world do they award a boat contract to aircraft and spacecraft designers? - "Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin"
What do they know about designing boats?
In fact, the last time I remember the government did something like this was when they awarded an intra-city bus contract to Grumman, and the engines promptly fell out of thousands of busses, and the airconditioners failed to work in the South, and the windows wouldn't open.
Idiots - the government should stay out of stuff like this.
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