As Capt. Brendan McPherson, chief of enforcement for the Coast Guard’s 7th District, Miami, Fla., explained, Operation Martillo is aimed not merely at keeping drugs out of the United States, but also at striking at the root of transnational drug cartels. “Pushing drug traffickers farther offshore puts them at greater risk,” he said. “It makes their operations more costly for them, and just as importantly, it gives those countries, particularly in Central America, more breathing room and less opportunity for these drug organizations to destabilize the region.”

 

An Expanding Domain

The Coast Guard’s 11 statutory missions cover the entire U.S. maritime domain – the largest exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the world, covering 3.4 million square miles of ocean, extending outward from 90,000 miles of coastline. More than a third of this coastline comprises the state of Alaska and its archipelago of 2,670 named islands – and the Arctic coast of Alaska, normally locked in ice for much of the year, has become an increasingly maritime environment in a season lasting roughly from July to November in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.

With sea lanes opening and increased human activity in Arctic waters, the Coast Guard – the lead federal agency for ensuring maritime safety, security, and stewardship in the Arctic – has turned its attention there with a series of exercises designed to execute its missions, build relationships with Arctic communities, and gauge the capabilities of its assets and partnerships in the region.

The most recent and most ambitious operation in the region, Arctic Shield 2012, marked the first time the Coast Guard has sustained a multimission presence throughout the Arctic maritime season. The Coast Guard’s 17th District in Alaska established a seasonal air base, stationing two MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters in a rented hangar in the northernmost U.S. community of  Barrow, more than 300 miles above the Arctic Circle. Arctic Shield’s surface assets were led by the national security cutter Bertholf, which brought state-of-the art command, control, and communications systems along with the ability to launch and recover helicopters and cutterboats at sea. The Bertholf, serving as a mobile base of operations, was supplemented by two ice-capable seagoing buoy tenders, the Sycamore and Hickory, and the 110-foot Island-class patrol boat Mustang.

Throughout Arctic Shield, the achievements of the Coast Guard – including 11 SAR cases resulting in four lives saved and six assisted; a combined 289 hours of ice reconnaissance and maritime domain awareness flights; and evaluative exercises that included the working assessment of a spilled oil recovery system (SORS) aboard the Sycamore – demonstrated the value of its presence in the Arctic and moved the service closer to defining its requirements for a permanent Arctic infrastructure.

The lack of infrastructure in the Arctic remains one of the Coast Guard’s greatest challenges as it considers both its long-term strategic vision and the operational lessons learned from Arctic Shield. The complete “lessons learned” document from Arctic Shield – as well as a comprehensive National Arctic Strategy – will be released later this year by the Coast Guard, which is eager to execute its mission requirements in one of the world’s most exciting frontiers.

“I think we’ve validated the fact that the federal government needs a presence in the Arctic, and that the Coast Guard is the right instrument for the nation, because of our broad mission set and our capabilities,” said Rear Adm. Thomas Ostebo, commander of the 17th District. “A Coast Guard presence in the Arctic is important now – and it will become more important in the future.”

This article was first published in Defense: Winter 2013 Edition.