The naval coastal warfare community has become increasingly more important, beginning with its first major deployment in Operation Desert Storm/Desert Shield in 1990-1991 through its use in Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti in 1994, Operation Noble Eagle in New York and Boston beginning in 2001, Operation Enduring Freedom in Guantanamo Bay in 2001, and Operation Iraqi Freedom this year. The need to protect high-value U.S. assets abroad and the need to secure foreign ports for military outloads point to the community's continued value to theater commanders.
In spite of its success, the program has weaknesses. Although naval coastal warfare (NCW) units are expected to deploy together and function as a single integrated system, regular joint interaction between individual members and the various specialty units has not been standardized. This creates several problems, including units being unfamiliar with other units' missions and capabilities and a disconnect stemming from differences in service cultures. There should be an initial period of adjustment prior to an NCW operation for participants to understand the roles of the other NCW players and to anticipate associated problems. Steps can be taken to minimize or eliminate these problems so the units can function more cohesively, resulting in better port security.
Joint Training
The Coast Guard's Special Mission Training Center, offering instruction to port security units and maritime safety and security teams, is at the U.S. Marine Corps' Camp Lejeune. A solid working relationship between Coast Guardsmen and Marines is one result of this training arrangement. Another is the facilitation of joint harbor defense exercises between Coast Guard maritime safety and security units and Marine Corps units. However, each service maintains its own training center.
Many of the skills used in the NCW community are transferable and interconnected among units, such as perimeter security, weapon qualifications, field sanitation, first aid, and the use of small boats as a tool for defense, surveillance, and interdiction. The establishment of a joint training command would enable units to offer their unit- and service-specific skill training while collaborating on shared major skills such as small boat operations. A joint NCW training facility would feature a classroom building shared among the various services and common areas such as small boat docks, repair shops, weapon training ranges, and obstacle courses. The services could retain their specialties during skill-specific instruction while profiting from intraservice expertise. Benefits would include training on the various boat hull types used among services, establishing standardized defensive boat tactics, and early indoctrination into joint NCW doctrine. Close proximity of training cadres would facilitate planning joint exercises.
Exchange Programs
Interservice exchange programs are not a new innovation. The Navy and Coast Guard exchange junior officers of the deck for afloat tours. Aviators among the various services are offered a chance to experience a squadron tour with another service. The NCW community should consider a similar program. Junior officers at the rank of lieutenant should be provided the opportunity to spend short tours on exchange with another NCW unit, returning to their parent units for the completion of their exchange tours. This would allow exchange officers the opportunity to understand the missions, operational capabilities, limitations, and culture of the units they are visiting through firsthand experience. Officers could earn an operational qualification during their exchange tours to understand more fully the operations of the units they are visiting. Junior officers would develop personal contacts with members of the other service who can prove invaluable in the event the units deploy together. These factors would reduce interservice rivalry and foster trust among units, and would create a more well-rounded officer corps within the naval coastal warfare community.
Returning junior officers could present a report for the wardrooms of their parent units that would include lessons learned during the exchange experience. This information would inform officers unable to participate in the exchange program of the joint forces doctrine.
Command Course
Although each service and NCW unit type has training specific to its needs, no capstone course exists to pull all these factors together into a single program doctrine. A programmatic naval coastal warfare course would focus on officers from lieutenant commander through captain who are filling command cadre billets such as operations officer, executive officer, or commanding officer at NCW units or senior liaison billets. The concept of jointly operated classes is not a new one to the military community. Currently, the Defense Information School at Ft. Meade, Maryland, offers public affairs courses taught in a joint environment. The Coast Guard's Search and Rescue School is operated with a contingent of U.S. Air Force personnel assigned as part of the staff.
The NCW command course would be taught by a joint staff made up of instructors who have significant NCW experience and who have obtained operational specialty in their areas of expertise. The purpose of the course would be to enable interservice contact at the command level.
Students would study the doctrine, history, and interoperability of port security and naval coastal warfare. Participants would be presented with maritime coastal warfare problem scenarios and would work through them in groups comprised of representatives of each service and unit type. Studies of lessons learned from previous joint NCW deployments would enable senior leaders to identify problems and develop solutions. Studies of theater-level command structures as they affect NCW would enable commanders to understand how they relate to each other and to their superiors.
Senior commanders who are experts in the NCW community could be brought in as guest instructors. At the conclusion of the program, commanders would have a better understanding of how their units will interact during a deployment, anticipate problems based on historical data, and prepare workarounds for those challenges. Personal contact between commanding officers will engender goodwill.
Optimally, the NCW command course would be offered as pipeline training for prospective commanding officers and executive officers so they can enter their command billets prepared to operate in a joint environment. Students preferably will have participated in the exchange program as junior officers before attending this course.
Joint Exercises
Exchange programs and doctrinal courses are important, but the key to preparing for joint operations is to train in a joint environment. Regular exercises that involve elements of the NCW community should be held routinely. Planning for these exercises should be accomplished by planning officers from the services involved. The objective would be for the units to deploy together, preferably in a foreign port, and simulate protection of high-value maritime assets against opposing forces. Lessons learned should be developed out of a "hot wash" held jointly by command and operational staffs at the conclusion of the exercise and should be distributed to all exercise participants. The cost to deploy all units for a joint exercise may prohibit this activity from taking place each year; rotating table-top exercises and field exercises may reduce costs.
Joint warfare exercises, such as the Northern Edge series conducted in Alaska or the Foal Eagle series held in South Korea, are not new. The Bright Star series of exercises held biannually in Egypt involving Coast Guard port security units and Navy mobile inshore undersea warfare units under the control of a harbor defense command unit is a striking example of a successful joint NCW exercise.
The naval coastal warfare community is a valuable asset for theater commanders. Secure port areas allow the successful unloading of supplies, troops, and heavy equipment, and the NCW community enables this. The joint services nature of the coastal warfare community means the interoperability of the involved units is essential.
Lieutenant Fawcett is serving on extended active duty as a duty officer at the Department of Transportation Crisis Management Center. Previous duty assignments have included search-and-rescue controller at Coast Guard District 9 in Cleveland, Ohio, and search-and-rescue controller at Coast Guard Group Grand Haven, Michigan.