Dolphin helicopter turns 25
November 19th, 2009 | Aviation Coast Guard | Posted by Susan Gvozdas
MH-65D, the latest iteration of MH-65 helicopter platform. // Coast Guard photo
The Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin helicopter is celebrating its 25th birthday today. The service accepted the HH-65A Dolphin helicopter for service on Nov. 19, 1984.
The Dolphin has served the Coast Guard well, and they have another 18 years to go in service before they will be replaced under the Deepwater program. By the end of October, the service had moved 48 of the upgraded MH-65Cs through their third segment of upgrades. The biggest change is a new engine that provides 40 percent more power and offers greater reliability. The helicopters also have new weapon mounts. Pretty nifty birthday gifts.
The MH-65Ds began in-flight testing in March. Look for a new flight navigation system, which is common to DOD helicopters and replaces the current compass, gyro systems and GPS system.
When the $901 million upgrade is finished in 2017, the Dolphins also will have equipment that will allow them to be secured and transferred to the hangars of the new national security cutters.
Watch the Coast Guard take down drug smugglers
November 13th, 2009 | Coast Guard Maritime operations Ships Video | Posted by Phil Ewing
It’s been a long, cold, rainy week here at the Center of Excellence, so what better way to wrap things up than by taking a mental vacation to the warm, exotic eastern Pacific? And, since we’re transporting ourselves there anyway, why not imagine some kind of motivational at-sea operations during the trip? No need to tax your brain — check out this video from the Coast Guard.
The national security cutter Bertholf interdicted four high speed vessels suspected of transporting cocaine — or maybe those guys are just dumping fish food overboard — using its MH-65C Dolphin helicopter and its small boats. Of particular delight here on the Deck were the shots of the Bertholf itself, which, as you’ll see at about 1:36, is throwing out an enormous heat plume as it runs its diesels and gas turbine at full CODAG power. Cool.
H/T: Coast Guard Capt. Bruce Baffer, who showed this movie Thursday in a presentation at a Surface Navy Association event outside Washington.
Coasties get the keys to their brand-new ship
November 9th, 2009 | Coast Guard Maritime operations Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
Unpronouncable name, fine-looking ship. // Coast Guard
Nothing puts a Coast Guardsman in a better mood than getting a new ship. Navy Times has had the privilege of being around when the Coast Guard showed off new vessels, all the way from the small (a Response Boat-Medium) to the large (the national security cutter Bertholf) and saw how the associated crew members glowed. And although we weren’t there Friday, it’s fair to say that glow was in effect when the lifesaving service accepted its second national security cutter, the Waesche.
Rear Adm. Ron Rabago, the Coast Guard’s top acquisition officer, signed the paperwork in Pascagoula, Miss., to transfer ownership of the Waesche from its Northrop Grumman shipyard to the U.S. government. The ship is set to sail to its new homeport of Alameda, Calif., in January.
The maritime strategy enters the terrible twos
October 20th, 2009 | Ballistic missile defense Coast Guard Foreign navies Maritime operations The greenside Washington leadership | Posted by Phil Ewing
The carrier George Washington trained with Korean warships in the Pacific last week. International cooperation was a key plank of the maritime strategy unveiled two years ago this week // MC3 Jeffrey Stewart/ Navy
The famed brown-shoe blogger SteeljawScribe — or as they’d say in Pittsburgh, “Stuhljawr-Scrub” — has reminded the Internet this week that we’ve reached the second anniversary of the unveiling of the maritime strategy (pdf), the document that was supposed to pave a clear road forward for the U.S. naval services and Coast Guard.
Asks Steeljaw: Did it? Answers Steeljaw: Kinda.
As a guidance document the strategy was useful, he writes, but it was incomplete because it contained no specifics for how many and what kinds of ships the U.S. would need to execute it. Those details were supposed to come in the “Naval Operations Concept,” the force structure document for which the world still waits. (Although incomplete initial versions have bubbled to the surface.)
The NOC, writes Steeljaw:
is increasingly important as planners inside and out of the naval services wrestle with new concepts and capabilities, the most recent example being the significant shift in BMD emphasis in the European theater … This redirection and the attendant gossamer-light expositions of how we will employ sea-based BMD in the maritime strategy has led to a fair degree of mis-information and erroneous assumptions as to general operational capabilities, requirements, and necessary force structure. More detailed explanation, as would be found in a NOC, would go a long ways to alleviate this condition.
On the anniversary of the MarStrat, it’s worth asking: How valuable has it proved for the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard?
Answers, questions about the mystery sailboat
October 5th, 2009 | Coast Guard Life at Sea Maritime operations Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
The abandoned sailboat discovered last week by the destroyer Cole wouldn't be the first sailing vessel to encounter problems on the open ocean // Naval History and Heritage Command
Last week the Deck brought you the case of the abandoned sailboat — a vessel discovered adrift by the destroyer Cole with a damaged mainsail and nobody aboard. At the time, there was nothing to go on but a pair of Navy photos, but now, we know what happened. Or do we?
According to a story on the Navy’s Web site, the master of the boat was rescued at sea July 14 by the Coast Guard, and his vessel has been at sea ever since. The Navy and the Coast Guard apparently contacted the guy to tell him the Cole had found his boat, so he asked the Cole’s crew to gather up some of the stuff he left aboard.
But there are still lots of holes in this story that nobody has been able to plug. A spokesman for 2nd Fleet in Norfolk said he had no information about the encounter beyond what was in the story online. And a spokeswoman for the Coast Guard’s Atlantic Area said she could find no record of a rescue at sea July 14. And nobody knew the name of this man, his boat, or what calamity forced him to be rescued by the Coast Guard.
It’s not much, but at least it confirms the crew wasn’t swallowed up by mysterious sea gas.
Can you fill in the missing pieces?
Limeys light ‘em up 2: Limeys light ‘em up again
September 29th, 2009 | Coast Guard Royal Navy Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
Drug runners be ye warned: The British frigate Iron Duke brought in the biggest cocaine seizure in the Royal Navy's history this week // Royal Navy
Does anyone not enjoy seeing the Royal Navy interdict drug smugglers, seize their contraband, then shoot up their vessels and sink them? If you don’t like it, don’t watch this video of the British frigate Iron Duke’s latest coup — the biggest cocaine seizure in Royal Navy history — which includes some pretty motivational footage of a helicopter machine gun raking the drug runners’ boat.
This is only the latest big takedown by Iron Duke, which Scoop Deck readers will remember from the last time it made a big drug collar out on the water. By the way, the embedded video here includes a voiceover added by the ITN network; you can see the Royal Navy’s raw, unedited video on its website here.
The Bourne Interdiction
September 17th, 2009 | Coast Guard Morale | Posted by Susan Gvozdas
Matt Damon made a visit to Coast Guard Station New York Tuesday while filming his new movie, The Adjustment Bureau. The movie, about mysterious forces trying to keep two lovers apart, includes a cameo with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Photo by PO3 Seth Johnson/Coast Guard
Memorial marks one-year anniversary of crash
September 8th, 2009 | Coast Guard | Posted by Susan Gvozdas
Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point lost four crew members in a helicopter crash Sept. 4, 2008. The air station marked the one-year anniversary of the crash Friday with a memorial.
The air station also took part in a unique event conceived by Master Chief Petty Officer Patrick Daniels, the command master chief at Air Station Atlantic City. Five ensigns were sent to every Coast Guard Air Station, where air crews took photos with the flags. The photos were placed in albums given to family members of the lost crew members. Each of the four families took home an ensign. The remaining flag will stay at Barbers Point. A touching feature story written by Petty Officer 3rd Class Angela Henderson details the journey these flags took.
Legare on patrol off the African coast
August 14th, 2009 | Coast Guard | Posted by Susan Gvozdas
I just wanted to share these cool photos of the medium endurance cutter Legare on patrol in the Atlantic Ocean Aug. 8. The Legare, home-ported in Portsmouth, Va. is deployed off the west and central coast of Africa in support of Africa Partnership Station, under the direction of Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa, 6th Fleet. I was struck by the stark contrast between ships. The photos were sent to us today from U.S. Naval Forces Africa Public Affairs.
PA2 Thomas M. Blue/Coast Guard
The Legare patrols alongside the Senegalese Navy vessel, Poponquine. During the six-day joint operation, several Senegalese boarding team members embarked Legare and participated in boarding and training exercises along with Coast Guard boarding team members.
PA2 Thomas M. Blue/Coast Guard
Coast Guard crew members aboard the Over-the-Horizon deployable boat from the Legare, maneuver near the cutter.
Happy 219th, Coast Guard!
July 31st, 2009 | Coast Guard Navy | Posted by Susan Gvozdas
Petty Officer 2nd Class NyxoLyno Cangemi/Coast Guard photo Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Shawn Beaty, 29, of Long Island, N.Y., looks for survivors in the wake of Hurricane Katrina Aug. 30, 2005.
In honor of the Coast Guard’s birthday Aug. 4, the Naval Institute has put together a new collection of rescue photos, including historic photographs and modern images.
“While the equipment and technology have vastly changed, the Coast Guard’s ‘always ready’ spirit remains the same,” according to the Naval Institute.
And you can save 20 percent on your photo order. Check out the link for the coupon code.