While these are traditionally Coast Guard missions, the diminishing multiyear sea ice in the Arctic has opened water that has been historically closed to maritime activity, making the defense of Alaska and U.S. interests in the Arctic a matter of national security.

This relatively new access to the Arctic has underscored the lack of infrastructure to support military or commercial activities in the region. Navigational charts are old, inaccurate, or virtually nonexistent. The United States is making a concerted effort to improve maps and charts, including depth sounds in U.S. waters and throughout the region. Communications systems, such as radio relay stations, are few and far between.

In wartime, the Coast Guard may become part of the Navy, but at all times it retains a naval capability. For its part, the Navy provides combat systems, including electronic warfare systems, sensors, and weapons and ordnance. This centralizes requirements and acquisition responsibilities, while ensuring interoperability between the two services when working together.

The fact that there is diminished multiyear ice in the Arctic doesn’t mean ice free, and the Arctic still requires icebreakers and ice-capable ships, which are in short supply.

 

National Fleet Plan

Taken as a whole, the Navy and Coast Guard can be viewed as a spectrum of capability for maritime response. At the highest end of the spectrum are the big nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines, and in the middle are the smaller Navy combatants, like the littoral combat ship, and larger Coast Guard vessels, such as the national security cutter and high endurance cutters. At the small end of the spectrum are the Navy’s coastal patrol boats and Coast Guard’s fast response cutter and the 110-foot and 87-foot patrol boats.

In wartime, the Coast Guard may become part of the Navy, but at all times it retains a naval capability. For its part, the Navy provides combat systems, including electronic warfare systems, sensors, and weapons and ordnance. This centralizes requirements and acquisition responsibilities, while ensuring interoperability between the two services when working together.

In June 2013, then-Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert and former Commandant of the Coast Guard Robert Papp issued a joint policy statement, “The National Fleet: A Joint United States Navy and United States Coast Guard Policy Statement,” designed to achieve Navy and Coast Guard commonality and interoperability.

The “National Fleet Plan,” which is how the two services implement the policy statement, seeks to avoid redundancies; takes advantages of economies of scale; and ensures effective and efficient operations when Navy and Coast Guard forces are mutually supporting each other when conducting maritime and naval operations. The services execute this policy through the charter of the National Fleet Board.

Today, Adm. Jonathan Richardson is the chief of Naval Operations, and Zukunft is the Coast Guard commandant, but both leaders have affirmed their support for the policy.

It’s not a one-way street. Both services gain from this mutual cooperation. “The Coast Guard has a lot of missions,” said Navy Rear Adm. William McQuilkin, the Navy’s director of strategy and policy and the co-chair of the National Fleet Board. “The National Fleet Board helps the Navy see where we can best support the Coast Guard.”

McQuilkin’s Coast Guard counterpart is Coast Guard Rear Adm. Peter J. Brown, assistant commandant for Response Policy.

McQuilkin says the Navy is rebalancing its forces to the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, and as the Navy “pivots” to the Pacific, the Coast Guard will have a lead role in the Arctic, as well as in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.

Brown said the Coast Guard can focus on threats within the Western Hemisphere while still augmenting Navy operations in the Pacific. “In particular, we are looking to forward deploying many of our assets to the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean to combat the trans-national criminal organizations that smuggle drugs through those waters and destabilize Central America and the United States.”

Some of the areas where the two services are collaborating area “small boat commonality integrated process team,” because both services operate numerous small boats; naval logistics integration; and maritime security cooperation. One Coast Guard mission that directly supports the Navy is the ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) transit protection escorts, where dedicated Coast Guard vessels provide on-the-water escort protection for high-value naval vessels.