Posts tagged ‘Coast Guard’
FRIDAY FOTO (September 21, 2018)
Worth a thousand words.
(Nebraska National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Herschel Talley)
Nebraska Army National Guard Spc. Matthew Reidy surveys the flooding from the air on September 19 (Wednesday) in Bladen County, North Carolina.
Two UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and 13 Soldiers assigned to a Lincoln-based Nebraska National Guard aviation unit supported the ongoing Hurricane Florence relief operations from the Army Aviation Support Facility at the Raleigh International Airport in North Carolina. The Company G, 2-104th General Aviation Battalion Soldiers are equipped and trained to conduct search and rescue operations, as well as air movement missions.
For days, the storm dumped relentless rain — in some places about 3 feet — and rivers keep on rising. The storm’s death toll ticked up to 41 people in the Mid-Atlantic region on Thursday (September 20); 31 of them in North Carolina alone, according to NPR.
The disaster sparked a widespread government response from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and National Guard units — as well as the Department of Homeland Security and local emergency workers.
FRIDAY FOTO (September 23, 2016)
Pretty, But Rugged Environment.
(U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Bill Colclough)
Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class John Gerbrands (left) guides a rescue heaving line to a 25-foot response boat during crewman qualification training in Valdez Harbor on Prince William Sound, Alaska.
Gerbands is assigned to Coast Guard Station Valdez, the service’s northern-most boast station. To see more photos of this training session, click here.
SHAKO: Veterans Day 2015
Vets Getting More Attention.
Is it your 4GWAR editor’s imagination or are veterans getting more attention from the media, industry and the public this year?
Veterans and U.S. Air Force Brigadier Generaql Barry Cornish, commander of the 18th Air Wing, salute the Prisoner of War/Missing in Action wreath during a Veterans Day ceremony on Kadena Air Base, Japan. The veterans are from Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9723.
(U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Lynette Rolen)
There were stories about veterans’ health and employment needs on radio, television and in almost every newspaper across the country. Businesses from local restaurants to national chains like J.C. Penny, Home Depot and Meineke were offering special deals for veterans and their families. And there seemed to be a healthy turnouts at local Veterans Day parades and other outdoor events.
But there are some who think parades and solemn memorial services aren’t enough to help those who have served their country, like the author of this op ed article, that first appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
U.S. Army retired Lt. Col. Luta C. McGrath — the oldest living U.S. veteran — is honored during a Veterans Day ceremony near the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery Nov. 11, 2016.
(U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Patrick Kelley)
In May, on Memorial Day, the United States of America remembers the honored dead, those who gave their lives in this country’s wars since 1775.
Every November on Veterans Day (no apostrophe, we’ve been informed — despite what the calendars and holiday sale ads say), Americans honor all who served or continue to serve in uniform — in war and peace. November 11 is the anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I – the “War to End All Wars” — in 1918. Unfortunately, history has proven that was an overly optimistic term for what turned out to be the First World War.
After years of bloodshed in the 20th and early 21st centuries, we’d like to pause here to remember the sacrifice of all those who serve their country. Even far from a combat zone, many of them have risky jobs on aircraft carrier decks, in fast moving Humvees and high flying aircraft. There is hard work, as well as danger, in airplane hangars and ships at sea. Depots and warehouses are stuffed with equipment and supplies that can blow up, burn, sicken or maim the humans working nearby.
Those risks are illustrated in some pretty amazing images in an insurance company’s television commercial thanking “those who dared to take the oath.”
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SHAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, billed headgear worn by many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress or parade uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.
CYBER SECURITY: Coast Guard Commandant Discusses Cyber Strategy
Cyber Hygiene.
U.S. Coast Guard Cyber Command Seal
In a world where North Korea can hack a movie production company’s internal communication and employee data as an act of revenge and diplomatic pique and U.S. authorities are looking into cyber spying on a Major League Baseball team — possibly by another team — it should come as no surprise that another U.S. government agency is upping its cyber defense game.
The U.S. Coast Guard has developed a cyber strategy to guide its priorities over the next 10 years. Those priorities include: defending U.S. cyberspace and the Coast Guard’s network; recognizing cyberspace as an operational domain and defend the Coast Guard’s information and communication networks while developing capabilities to detect, deter and defeat malicious activity in cyberspace; protecting the information system infrastructure that the national Maritime Transportation System relies on, which has economic and national security implications.
Admiral Paul Zukunft, the Coast Guard’s commandant, outlined the strategy this week at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington think tank. He noted that all aspects of modern life have been enhanced – but often made dependent — on information technology from mobile phones to data storage facilities. And that has made numerous entities, including the nation’s Maritime Transportation System vulnerable to a wide range of cyber attacks by adversaries ranging from terrorists and hostile nation states to transnational organized crime cartels and disaffected or sloppy IT workers.
A key defense, Zukunft said several times was “cyber hygiene,” following safety practices when using government, corporate or personal computer systems. That includes not sharing passwords or using easily corruptible devices like thumb drives.
Zukunft noted that the nation’s security and prosperity is critically reliant on a safe and secure maritime domain, which, in turn is dependent on safe and reliable communications and digital networks. But the Coast Guard faces a daunting task. The two-year-old Coast Guard Cyber Command has just 70 members compared to the thousands at the Defense Department’s cyber unit. The cyber strategy notes that a recent report to Congress indicates an 1,121-percent rise in cybersecurity incidents reported to government agencies from 2006 to 2014. The report, by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) cites a significant rise in the compromise of sensitive information which could adversely affect national security, public health and safety.
MARITIME DOMAIN: Navy Unmanned Aircraft; Railgun Testing; Securing the Hemisphere
News Ahoy!
X-47B unmanned aircraft on board the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman. (U.S. Navy photo courtesy of Northrop Grumman by Alan Radecki)
The Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition at the Gaylord Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland draws to a close Wednesday (April 15).
Your 4GWAR editor has been helping out the Seapower magazine team with their daily show news publication.
Here’s a sample of what we’ve been seeing.
The Navy’s unmanned demonstrator aircraft for showing how drones could be integrated into the busy flight deck of an American aircraft carrier is facing its last challenge.
Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) says that unmanned aircraft system (UAS), known as the X-47B, (see photo above) will soon start testing its ability to refuel in the air.
To see the full story, click here.
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Here are some other stories on the Seapower website:
Electromagnetic Railgun’s First at-Sea Test Set for Summer 2016
The first at-sea test firing of the Navy’s electromagnetic railgun is slated for late summer 2016, a Naval Sea Systems Command official said April 14.
The rail gun, which uses high-powered electromagnetic pulses instead of chemical propellants to fire projectiles that can move at seven times the speed of sound, will be mounted on a joint high-speed vessel to fire over the horizon at a target anchored in the water, said Capt. Mike Ziv, program manager for Directed Energy and Electric Weapons Systems.
To read the rest of the story, click here.
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Larger Fire Scout a ‘Great Fit’ for the Navy
The larger version of the MQ-8 Fire Scout unmanned helicopter has completed 297 test sorties and is slated to begin initial operational testing and evaluation in 2016, the Navy program manager said April 13.
The Northrop Grumman MQ-8C Fire Scout, is larger, faster, longer and farther-flying than the MQ-8B, with increased endurance and will reduce the burden of manned aircraft, Capt. Jeff Dodge told a briefing at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition.
To read the rest of the story, click here.
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Coast Guard Sees Combatting Crime Networks as Key to Hemispheric Security
The U.S. Coast Guard says it’s not enough to seize thousands of pounds of cocaine at sea or even arrest the people transporting illegal drugs by boat. Instead, it’s crucial to defeat the transnational organized crime (TOC) networks behind the illicit commerce in narcotics and people, according to the Coast Guard’s Western Hemisphere Strategy.
“Last year alone. the Coast Guard took 91 metric tons of cocaine out of the [trafficking] stream,” Lt. Cmdr. Devon Brennan told a briefing on the first day of the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition. He noted that is three times the amount of drugs seized by all U.S. law enforcement agencies “including along the southwestern border.”
To read more of this story, click here.
Cocaine seized in Central American waters.
(U.S. Navy photo)
MARITIME DOMAIN: Sea-Air-Space Expo This Week
Three-Day Maritime Conference.
(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Paul Kelly)
Future challenges and current needs for the sea services – the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Coast Guard – will be the hot topics this week at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Expo at National Harbor, Maryland.
Top officials, including Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jonathan Greenert, Admiral James Winnefeld Jr., the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Paul Zukunft, Marine Corps Commandant General Joseph Dunford and naval commandants from Singapore, Australia and Japan will be among the speakers at the three-day event that starts Monday (April 13) across the river from Washington, D.C.
Big names in the defense and maritime industries like Northrop Grumman, Boeing, L-3, General Dynamics, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Austal and BAE Systems will exhibiting their latest products for the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard.
Components of the services like the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) and Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) will also ne detailing their plans and equipment requirements in the coming fiscal year.
Your 4GWAR editor will be there too, as part of the small army of reporters covering the goings on for the Navy League’s Seapower magazine and its daily show publication. We’ll be focusing on unmanned aircraft and the Coast Guard’s strategic plan for the Western Hemisphere among other assignments.
If you can’t make it to the Gaylord Convention Center, you can catch the latest news at the Seapower website and on Twitter at @seaairspace and @SeapowerMag
(U.S. Navy photo by Lt. Ed Early)
HOMELAND SECURITY: Four Day Conference Kicks off in Washington
Homeland Security Week.
Customs and Border Patrol photo
Border management and immigration, cyber security and emergency response and disaster relief will be among the topics discussed as the four-day Homeland Security Week conference opens Monday (October 6) at th Washington Convenion Center.
Government officials scheduled to attend include U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michal Fisher, Randolph Alles, the head of the Air and Marine Office at Customs and Border Protection and the chief technology officer at the Department of Homeland Security, Wolfe Tombe. Experts from government, academia and industry will be participating in panel discussions and roundtable sessions. Companies in a wide range of the security industry including thermal imaging, radar, video cameras, law enforcement equipment and information technology security will be in the exhibit hall.
Maritime security, battling transnational organized crime — particularly in the areas of narcotics and money laundering — and weapons of mass destruction will also be discussed at the event, sponsored by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement (IDGA)
Your 4GWAR editor will be there catching up with old colleagues and sources. Here’s a story we got out of last year’s event.
Customs and Border Protection photo
FRIDAY FOTO (February 14, 2014)
Balancing Act
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Matthew Troyer)
A U.S. Marine and two South Korean marines attempt to flip a boat as they conduct amphibious operations drills during Exercise Cobra Gold 2014, Asia’s biggest military exercise, at Hat Yao in Rayong,Thailand.
The exercise is designed to advance regional security and effective response to regional crises through a multinational force created out of the nations that share common goals and common security commitments in the Asia-Pacific region.
The exercise also reaffirms the commitment by the United States and Thailand to their 181-year-old alliance and regional partnership in the Asia-Pacific region.
This year’s participants come from the U.S. and Thailand, but also Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea.
For the first time, China will participate with a tiny contingent in the exercise, the Straits Times website reported. Beijing has had disputes with several nations — including the Philippines, Japan and Vietnam — over territorial boundaries in the South China Sea.
The Cobra Gold drills started in 1982 and have developed in to the largest multinational military exercise. China has been an observer since 2002 but has never been invited to take part before, according to CCTV.com.
The U.S. Marines participating in the exercise come from the 3rd Marine Division’s 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion.
FRIDAY FOTO (November 15, 2013)
(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Ricardo R. Guzman)
UNMANNED AIRCRAFT: FAA Releases Initial Plan for Drone Flights in U.S. Skies
FAA Roadmap
The U.S. military has flown thousands of drones like this hand-launched U.S. Army RQ-11, but commercial use is restricted in U.S. airspace
(Army photo by Spc. Michael J. MacLeod, U.S. Army)
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released its initial plans Thursday (November 7) for gradually integrating unmanned aircraft into the national airspace of the United States.
The FAA, an agency of the Transportation Department, has been studying unmanned aircraft — also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) or simply drones — for years, trying to figure how to let aircraft without a pilot on board make their way into a domain already crowded with commercial airliners, private planes and jets, military aircraft, skyscrapers, bridges, radio towers, power lines and stormy weather.
As an early step in that process — expected to take 15 years — the FAA issued its first annual Roadmap outlining the steps needed to integrate unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into the nation’s airspace. The roadmap addresses current and future policies, regulations, technologies and procedures “that will be required as demand moves the country from today’s limited accommodation of UAS operations to the extensive integration of UAS” into national airspace in the future, according to an FAA statement that accompanied release of the 71-page roadmap that tackles such issues as operator training, air traffic control challenges and national security issues. The FAA also released the 26-page UAS Comprehensive Plan to safely accelerate working civil UAS into the nation’s airspace system.
While the military has made extensive use of drones for reconnaissance, surveillance and attack over the last dozen years, UAS are strictly limited in their operations in U.S. airspace. Research institutions, government agencies and law enforcement must first obtain a waiver, known as a certificate of authorization — which allows, but sharply restricts the areas where non-military UAS flights can take place. The agriculture, energy and scientific communities already have developed numerous uses for UAS, but are limited in their use by the FAA — as are local police and fire/emergency departments.
Drones large and small on display at the August AUVSI Expo in Washington. (4GWAR photo by John M. Doyle)
Other groups, however, have voiced privacy and civil liberties concerns about widespread use of drones — large and small — in U.S. skies, especially by law enforcement agencies.
The Associated of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), the main industry group, estimates that UAS technology will create more than 100,000 jobs and generate more than $82 billion in economic impact in the first 10 years after drones are integrated into the national airspace.
Full disclosure: 4GWAR editor John M. Doyle writes freelance articles for AUVSI’s Unmanned Systems magazine.
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