Breaking Defense – A government watchdog is sounding the alarm that a major Coast Guard shipbuilding program is at risk of “costly rework and “schedule delays” due to the service’s choice to begin construction prior to having a stable ship design.

USNI News – Coast Guard law enforcement operations in the Caribbean Sea are continuing as the Pentagon formulates its mission in U.S. Southern Command following a lethal military strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat.

USNI News – Ahead of a planned boost in icebreaker programs, the Coast Guard has commissioned its first major icebreaker since 1999.

CIMSEC – If the United States is serious about building capacity to operate at-sea in the high latitudes, it is time to look south. 

Breaking Defense – “We don’t have enough parts … and we’re deferring on dry docks. That will all begin to compound for more costs, not less, and it is eroding readiness,” Adm. Linda Fagan told Breaking Defense.

USNI News – American, Canadian and Finish officials committed to the joint development, construction and maintenance of polar icebreakers with the signing of the Icebreaker Collaborative Effort Pact in Washington today. 

Breaking Defense – Faced with an increasing number of missions, personnel and materiel readiness shortfalls, and “finite resources,” the US Coast Guard today published its first “Operational Posture” document, which a senior officer said is intended to convey to lawmakers and the public how stretched his service has become.

USNI News – The Coast Guard will use Juneau, Alaska, as the homeport for its commercially procured icebreaker.The Coast Guard is in the process of acquiring a commercial icebreaker, named Aiviq, built as a support vessel for Arctic oil exploration. The service plans to convert the ship into a medium polar icebreaker, a process estimated to take two years.

USNI News – An electrical fire in a transformer forced USCGC Healy (WAGB-20), one of two American icebreakers, to cancel its Arctic mission

USNI News – Coming up short 10 percent of its required enlisted force means the Coast Guard “can’t crew all our ships” and has had to “temporarily shutter some of our smaller stations,” the vice commandant said Wednesday.

Breaking Defense – The US, Canada and Finland announced today a new trilateral effort, dubbed the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort or “ICE Pact,” to work together on the production of a “fleet” of new polar icebreakers, in what a US official said was a “strategic imperative” in the race of dominance of the high north.

War on the Rocks – All is not lost for the United States in the Indo-Pacific. Both Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia recently signed agreements that will allow the U.S. Coast Guard to enforce maritime law on behalf of those countries without having a representative of those countries onboard U.S. vessels. The United States should build on this momentum, developing a coordinated international approach to the region that will establish a combined force of coast guards and maritime law enforcement agencies, with a persistent focus from this force on fortifying international norms.

Naval News – U.S. Coast Guard Forces Micronesia Sector Guam has only existed in its current form for a few years, but, in that time, it’s had a massive impact on U.S. re-engagement with Oceania.

The War Zone – The Coast Guard is far from meeting ice-breaking mission demands in the strategic Arctic region and currently only has one heavy icebreaker.

Barents Observer – The US Coast Guard vessel sailed in formation with Norway’s KV Svalbard from the ice-covered waters near Russia’s Franz Josef Land en route to conduct joint exercises in the Barents Sea.

Barents Observer – Only few days after U.S icebreaking coast guard ship Healy sailed through the Bering Strait and into the Chukchi Sea as part of a 7-week westbound voyage along the Russian Arctic coast, the Russian Navy started drills in the area on “protection of the Northern Sea.”

USNI News – The Navy and U.S. Transportation Command are sending salvage equipment to help find a submersible that went missing while trying to travel to the wreck of RMS Titanic, the Coast Guard announced Tuesday.

CIMSEC – The Coast Guard is facing a looming afloat officer shortage with no good options on the table. With roughly 3.5%* of all CG officer billets currently gapped, and a particular shortfall impacting mid-grade (O3/O4) officers the Coast Guard needs to explore creative solutions to address the pending crisis.

CIMSEC – As the U.S. Coast Guard undergoes a period of “prolific” acquisitions, the service must resolve a lurking specter: How to fill all of these ships with qualified personnel? 

USNI News – Illegal fishing has surpassed piracy as a Coast Guard global concern in the maritime domain, the service’s top officer overseeing response policy said Wednesday.

War on the Rocks – The Soviet fishing fleet was once a near-permanent fixture on America’s Pacific coast, hauling in an estimated 1.2 million tons of fish until the two sides reached an agreement to limit the Soviet catch in exchange for a relaxation of rules on Soviet port visits. Moscow’s fishing fleet dwindled in the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, only to be replaced by China’s large fleet — and maritime militia — that Beijing now uses to encroach on the sovereignty of its neighbors. The environmental and economic challenges of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing are clearly a threat to the global fish supply, but also represent a more direct and significant threat to national security.

USNI Proceedings – The Coast Guard must address cutter self-sustainability 
as the fleet’s range and missions become more global.

USNI Proceedings – The service must foster pride in its heritage among new recruits and officers.

AP – A U.S. coast guard cutter conducting patrols as part of an international mission to prevent illegal fishing was recently unable to get clearance for a scheduled port call in Solomon Islands, an incident that comes amid growing concerns of Chinese influence on the Pacific nation.

War Zone – The experiment of embarking a top-end Navy MH-60R Seahawk aboard a Legend-class cutter is likely a glimpse of the future.