– War on the Rocks – If the U.S. Department of Defense is serious about emerging from a period of strategic atrophy, the U.S. Coast Guard’s international posture should also change to reflect America’s emphasis on great power competition.

– USNI Proceedings – Africa could be the right place for the U.S. Coast Guard to maneuver against Chinese global efforts.

– USNI Proceedings – A shift from drug interdiction to fisheries protection could be a better use of funds, protect U.S. natural resources, and contribute to mission success.

– USNI News – The U.S. Coast Guard is looking at longer deployments to the Western Pacific region following the successful execution of the Operation Aiga deployment to Samoa and American Samoa.

– USNI News – For the next several years, the Coast Guard’s only heavy icebreaker will lead the annual Antarctic resupply mission as the service develops its new class of icebreaker.

– ABC – A submarine in the Pacific Ocean was found with over 12,000 pounds of cocaine worth over $165 million dollars.

– War Zone – The U.S. Coast Guard has rescued hundreds of people across the Bahamas in the wake of Hurricane Dorian using helicopters operating from a little known and secretive U.S. Navy submarine test base situated on one of the islands in the archipelago.

– USNI News – The Coast Guard’s ability to fold into the U.S. joint armed forces to protect America’s interests globally has “never been more relevant,” a senior Coast Guard officer in the Pacific region told a Navy audience.

– USNI News – U.S Coast Guard is mulling its future in the Asia-Pacific region once the National Security Cutter USCGC Stratton (WMSL-752) completes its current deployment at the end of November.

– USNI Proceedings – The Coast Guard has led the battle to dismantle the criminal organizations that destabilize the Latin and Central American region. Now it should command the battlespace.

– USNI News – On its recent Indo-Pacific patrols, the Coast Guard cutter USCGC Bertholf (WSML-750) thwarted illegal oil and coal shipments that violated of U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea, transited the Strait of Taiwan amid condemnation from China and worked with U.S. allies to bolster their own coast guard forces.

– USNI News – The U.S. Coast Guard will increase its presence and deployments to Asia – particularly around Oceania and U.S. Pacific territories – and test out a new operational deployment concept in the region.

– US Coast Guard – The U.S. Coast Guard is sorely in need of these ships, especially as competition heats up in the Arctic region.

– Breaking Defense – The Coast Guard wants to operate more consistently in the Arctic, but has a fraction of the icebreakers that Moscow can deploy.

– USNI News – 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.

– USNI Proceedings – The risk of an unprepared Coast Guard overseeing the protection of the US maritime transportation system in the era of renewed interstate conflict can no longer be overlooked.

– USNI News – The Coast Guard plans to award a contract this spring to build a new heavy icebreaker, but Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz says today’s problems running the one decades-old icebreaker illustrate the fragility of the current polar icebreaking capability.

– Navy Times – The crew of the Coast Guard’s last heavy icebreaker battled a nighttime Feb. 10 blaze for almost two hours before it was extinguished.

– USNI News – The U.S. Coast Guard hopes to keep its aging fleet of short-range search and rescue helicopters flying for another dozen years while evaluating the potential of vertical lift studies from the Pentagon to fulfill future missions.

– Breaking Defense – With House and Senate appropriators still at odds over funding a new icebreaker in 2019, the Coast Guard is hoping a new name — ‘Polar Security Cutter’ — and a clearer emphasis on national security missions will help convince the House to fund the ship.

– USNI News – Continual improvements in computer technology, specifically decryption (“hacking”) software, has invoked a new threat that requires the Coast Guard to add maritime cyber security to its mission set considering 90 percent of the goods used by Americans are transported by sea.

– CIMSEC – With only two operable icebreakers the Coast Guard is unable to safely conduct their mission in regions which are increasingly accessible due to receding ice levels. This gap in capability exacerbates international and economic consequences of an increasingly accessible Arctic against American interests. To conduct sustained Arctic operations in the national interest new icebreakers are needed and soon.

– USNI Proceedings – The majority of the U.S. public is unaware of the Coast Guard beyond its response to national-level incidents such as hurricanes and oil spills. The service blames the lack of national awareness on its small size, but ignores the real problem: The Coast Guard does not care about its public affairs program. Rather than embracing the program as a mission enabler, the service has allowed it to become depleted from decades of neglect. The program’s lack of focus, lack of leadership, and lack of resources hinder the Coast Guard’s ability to connect with the audiences necessary to move the service forward.

– USNI Proceedings – With a few modest modifications, the Coast Guard’s major cutter fleet could play a greater role in defense at home and maximize Navy capacity to project power abroad.

– USNI Proceedings – Ninety years after rescuing 43,853 victims of the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927, the Coast Guard again surged to “all hands on deck” disasters, this time Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. They were but the latest in an already lengthy list of disasters the Coast Guard has faced less than two decades into the 21st century, events that provide insight into the challenges the service must be prepared for in the coming decades. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill; the Haiti earthquake; Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Sandy, Gustav, and Ike; the 9/11 maritime evacuation of Manhattan—these and other massive, highly disruptive disasters required deep and extended commitments of Coast Guard capabilities, competencies, and authorities. They also sorely tested its capacity to sustain ongoing, normal operations.