An IMOC goal to give foreign maritime officers a better perspective on how U.S. naval forces operate can help them develop their own tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) for interacting with other navies, as well as dealing with smugglers and pirates and defending their coastal waters from foreign incursion.

“I think the IMOC course does that best because they get the broadest exposure into how the U.S. Coast Guard operates,” Martinez said.

At the same time, some mobile training also may support those TTPs.

“You can’t help but indirectly do that,” Turner noted. “If the engineering side goes to an African nation and helps them build on their preventative maintenance efforts for near-shore patrol vessels, that would indirectly help them with their anti-piracy mission.”

Another peripheral ITD function is somewhat of a role reversal, in which it is the expertise of the international trainers that is called upon by other parts of the Coast Guard.

“The Coast Guard does what we refer to as a training needs assessment, but not in this division. That is done by the deputy commandant for International [Affairs],” Holt said. “Within that, in some cases, also is a resources assessment. In the past, we have been asked to accompany them for our subject-matter expertise, but that is not one of our normal functions or missions.”

 

Conclusion

ITD trained 194 students from 77 nations at Yorktown during FY 13; at one student for one day, that totaled 11,093 student days. Meanwhile, MTB deployed on 57 missions to 26 countries, training 180 students.

“Out of my four teams, we had 3,790 deployed days – at least one team member deployed for one full day,” Holt said.

“I’ve been on 18 missions to 12 countries and five continents. One perspective I can give on the value added by Coast Guard training is the maritime domain connects all nations and the U.S. has a vital stake in both the threats and opportunities it presents,” Daffer said.

“Most of the world have navies, customs, or police forces that closely mirror the mission sets of the U.S. Coast Guard. We work hard on building interagency relationships, with both DoD and U.S. embassies abroad, to deliver those particular Coast Guard core competencies that really is what most nations need. And the feedback we have received has been positive.”

As with all other parts of the U.S. government, the Coast Guard – a component of the Department of Homeland Security that can be assigned to DoD for military operations – is struggling to determine the impact of current and future budget cuts, sequestration, and the government “shutdown” that began Oct. 1, 2013, the start of FY 14. That includes whether those may reduce international training.

“It could, because while the training is all paid for by the countries involved or other agencies, the salaries of USCG personnel are paid for under the Coast Guard budget. If the DoD and State Department budgets are hit with cuts, ultimately that will wind its way into all these various programs and they will be cut as well,” Holt said in early October.

The relationship of Coast Guard international training to the current or future ability of other nations to work with the U.S. Navy or Coast Guard in contingency operations is peripheral and largely serendipitous, rather than a specific part of the mission.

“Within the International Division in the last four years, we have seen about a 40 percent reduction in the number of personnel we have due to budget cuts. Furloughs also have affected us. I’m a civilian and I have two on the resident side and three on mobile. One of those is on furlough now because of the government shutdown; the rest of us are deemed excepted personnel, but that could change.”

With nearly every nation on Earth facing similar economic problems, those paying their own way and those using FMS funds for training may divert them to other purposes, such as maintaining or upgrading legacy equipment. Nonetheless, the resident and mobile training the Coast Guard provides around the globe – covering almost everything the service does, except ice breaking and defense readiness – is seen as vital to keeping their maritime forces at full capability.

“The mobile and resident sides of USCG international training are meant to complement each other. The international demand is out there; the whole world wants our training, both resident and mobile. So I would say the future is bright.”

“We’re pretty much into one-size-fits-all. The principles of driving a boat are pretty much the same, regardless of size or propulsion, although we do try to tailor as much as we can on both the resident and mobile sides,” Holt said, adding that is well represented by training programs for India, whose navy more closely, albeit faintly, resembles the U.S. Navy more than others.

“Our previous and future mission to India is low-level law enforcement TTPs, such as boarding. India has one of the largest navies in the world, but that is not the norm for us. Our work with them has nothing to do with big ships, just basic maritime law enforcement.”

Another evolving change reflects the U.S. “pivot” from Europe and Southwest Asia to the Asia Pacific region.

“In the last three years, there has been a greater emphasis on certain countries in the Pacific. If you look at it over time, we have seen a trend toward more than the traditional focus on the region, on both the resident and mobile sides. Just as we’ve seen a huge growth in Africa – last year we had 30 or more missions there compared [to] only a couple five years ago,” Holt concluded.

“The mobile and resident sides of USCG international training are meant to complement each other. The international demand is out there; the whole world wants our training, both resident and mobile. So I would say the future is bright.”

This article first appeared in the Coast Guard Outlook 2014 Edition.