With the United States focused on the Pacific and reemergent great power competition, the Coast Guard must look for ways to foster better integration with the U.S. naval team and prepare for potential tense interactions with both Russian and Chinese forces in the region. The opportunity exists to provide the Coast Guard with the ability to rapidly field flexible antisubmarine aircraft and an over-the-horizon anti-ship capability, at minimal cost to the taxpayer, should a major maritime conflict arise.
Expand Aviation Capabilities
Faced with recapitalizing its medium- and high-endurance cutter fleets, the Coast Guard has had to make difficult choices to sustain its rotary-wing aviation capability. The short-range recovery MH-65 helicopter is being service-life extended to an unprecedented 30,000 hours and upgraded to the MH-65E configuration. The MH-60T medium-range recovery helicopter, which is rapidly approaching the end of its 20,000-hour service life, is being service-life extended by a combination of SH-60F and HH-60H decommissioned hulls acquired from the Navy and zero-time green hulls from Sikorsky.
The service must bridge the gap to future vertical lift while also using taxpayer dollars efficiently. Transferring excess Navy MH-60R helicopters to the Coast Guard could increase operational capability, foster greater interoperability, strengthen national security, and reduce legacy asset sustainment risk.
Two years prior to the early cancellation of the littoral combat ship (LCS) program, the Navy agreed to purchase MH-60Rs based on the planned 55-ship fleet. LCS procurement plans changed; however, because of economies of scale related to aircraft production, MH-60R production was completed for the full ship complement. “So while the service requires 473 of the MH-60R and MH-60S variants, it now has 531 of them in stock, according to the [inspector general].”1 The 57 excess hulls are stored at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, costing the taxpayer $2 million a year.
Adding these MH-60Rs to the Coast Guard portfolio would be a force multiplier, as the platform is a major seller to allied partners in the Indo-Pacific, with South Korea, Australia, and India currently operating or planning to operate the aircraft.
In addition, the Coast Guard is acquiring 22 HC-130J aircraft to replace its older HC-130Hs.2 Lockheed-Martin has proposed an antisubmarine warfare (ASW) retrofit kit for the C-130J.
Given the C-130J’s ability to deploy throughout the world, Coast Guard C-130Js equipped for ASW would be a maritime patrol force multiplier for the Department of Defense (DoD), if needed. The service could accommodate approximately 35 C-130Js at its current and legacy C-130 bases at Sacramento, California; Clearwater, Florida; Elizabeth City, North Carolina; Kodiak, Alaska; and Barbers Point, Hawaii.
The Coast Guard has a long and proud tradition in ASW, proving its worth in the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II and as a supplement to the Navy during the Cold War. With Chinese and Russian expansion, the return of ASW-capable Coast Guard assets is in the best interest of the nation.
Strengthen Cutter Capabilities
Adding MH-60R helicopters to the national security and offshore patrol cutter fleets would provide several benefits. The MH-60Rs:
• Are ASW-capable and bring amalgamated capability, including Mk 54 torpedoes
• Have a Link-16 tactical data link, which is interoperable with current and future Link 11/16/22 on major cutters
• Give the two largest classes of cutters over-the-horizon antiship strike capability with AGM-114 Hellfire missiles
• Provide increased range and payload over the legacy MH-65D/E, while maintaining the capability to perform all current missions of the MH-65 and being capable of flying through icing conditions
• Are low risk, proven shipboard-capable helicopters that have been in service for more than three decades in some variant capacity
• Would allow the Coast Guard to deliver maritime security response teams
There will be a significant lag as the Navy transitions from the LCS program to the new FFGs, as the first frigate likely will not be fully operational until later in the 2020s. Supplemental funding to allow national security cutter production to continue past 11 hulls to 12–15 hulls and to increase offshore patrol cutter acquisition from 2 to 4 hulls a year would allow the Coast Guard to better assist its Navy and Marine Corps partners. Combined with the added capabilities of the MH-60R helicopters, these actions would help ease the surface ship shortage for the Navy and provide an additional platform for elements of Marine Corps littoral combat regiments.3
Third Leg of the Triad
The best counter to a reemergent Russia and rising China is a strong integrated naval force, ready for operations in the world’s oceans. Restoring the Coast Guard’s ability to perform ASW is critical to ensuring the service is able not only to deter aggression, but also to respond to current and emerging threats from both state and nonstate actors. It is in the best interest of both homeland and national security to continue the acquisition, DoD transfer, and expansion of Coast Guard surface and aviation forces to provide the third, flexible leg of the triservice maritime strategy into the 2020s.
1. Geogg Ziezulewicz, “Watchdog: Navy Bought Too Many Helicopters,” Navy Times, 5 February 2019.
2. Garrett Reim, “PARIS: Lockheed Unveils Maritime Patrol Kit for C-130 Hercules,” Flight Global, 18 June 2019.
3. Megan Eckstein, “Marines Testing Regiment at Heart of Emerging Island-Hopping Future,” USNI News, 4 June 2020.
