Cristo: origen, centro y meta del Año Litúrgico

The Coast Guard is unique in that it is a military service and a federal law enforcement agency. Due to this, it can operate under a full spectrum of authorities from national defense to law enforcement. Despite being a military service, the Coast Guard has a “distinctively law-enforcement and regulatory, civilian-lifeguard, and resource-protecting character,”⁸⁵ rather than a military character. As the quote indicates, the Coast Guard is also a multi-mission agency. It has two primary mission areas, homeland security missions and nonhomeland security missions.⁸⁶ Maritime security only became a top priority for the USCG since the 9/11 attacks in 2001.⁸⁷ Much like the Navy, it has to find a balance to conduct both sets of missions.

a. Force Structure

The Coast Guard operates over 2,100 boats and cutters⁸⁸ to govern and defend the 3.4 million square miles of U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone and territorial

84 Ed Early, “Multiple Drug Seizures Highlight Freedom's 4th Fleet Deployment,” Navy News, April 5, 2010, http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=52416.

85 Gray, “The Coast Guard and the Navy,” 117.

86 The Coast Guard’s homeland security missions include ports, waterways, and coastal security (PWCS), drug interdiction, migrant interdiction, defense readiness, and other law enforcement. Its non-homeland security missions include marine safety, search and rescue, aids-to-navigation, living marine resources, marine environmental protection, and ice operations. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Inspector General, Annual Review of the United States Coast Guard’s Mission Performance (FY 2010) (Washington, DC: DHS, 2011), 2.

87 Gary R. Bowen, “Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachments in the War on Terror” (monograph, Army Command and General Staff College, 2005), 1.

88 The majority of the vessel are the small boats, followed by smaller patrol cutters. Acquisition Directorate, “U.S. Coast Guard Cutters, Boats & Aircraft,” U.S. Coast Guard, January 31, 2012, http://www.uscg.mil/ACQUISITION/aboutus/cuttersaircraft.asp.

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waters, 95,000 miles of coastline, and about 360 ports.⁸⁹ The Coast Guard’s force structure is opposite of the Navy’s. It is primarily a coastal force that is designed for patrols/maritime interdiction and rescue operations. Since the Coast Guard vessels are not combat ships, they do not need high-end capability to defeat low-end threats, therefore, most of its vessels have only basic defenses. The vast majority of these vessels are smaller, shallow drafted, and operate along the coast. Less than one hundred cutters can operate in the open ocean for any significant amount of time.

To note, the Coast Guard is struggling to update and reman its long neglected service. The Deepwater program provides an important example of the Coast Guard’s efforts to update its aging and obsolete force by replacing or adding 91 new cutters, 124 new small boats, and 247 new or modernized airplanes, helicopters, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).⁹⁰ Although the Deepwater program was initiated in the late 1990s, it was not given the credence it deserved until after 9/11.The Deepwater program has been plagued by severe budget overruns, acquisition management problems, and slow deliveries, delaying the update of the Coast Guard’s fleet.⁹¹ Clearly, these setbacks do not improve the ability of the Coast Guard to meet its maritime obligations.

The Coast Guard has one asset of significant importance to maritime security, the LEDET. They represent the best asset for direct LE support for Navy and other partner nations’s operations, because they “consist of active duty personnel who operate onboard U.S. and partner nation naval vessels in order to provide expanded law enforcement authority, expertise and capability to carry out interdiction and apprehension operations from U.S. and partner nation surface assets.”⁹² They can also operate in both the homeland and abroad. The Coast Guard Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 called for the expansion of LEDETs to 18 total teams with 12 personnel, an increase from 17 teams

89 Mones and Webb, “The Coast Guard Needs Help from the… Navy and Marine Corps.”

90 Ronald O'Rourke, Coast Guard Deepwater Acquisition Programs: Background, Oversight Issues, and Options for Congress CRS RL33753 (Washington, D.C.: The Service, 2011), Summary.

91 Ibid., 10–27.

92 Naval Operations Concept 2010, 31.

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with 11 personnel each, due to the high demand for operations.⁹³ Even with the existence of LEDETs, their small numbers make it difficult to for them to meet their demand.⁹⁴

b. Homeland Maritime Security Roles

As the Navy’s focus is abroad, the Coast Guard’s focus is at home. The Coast Guard’s unique role as both a military service and law enforcement agency logically places it as the primary agency for providing maritime homeland security.⁹⁵ It can perform a full spectrum of homeland security and maritime homeland defense missions with little jurisdictional complications, making it the ideal service to combat a majority of threats. The Coast Guard’s unique position puts it into place where it can help bridge the gap between military and civilian law enforcement needs because it continuously uses the interagency process in its daily operations. Despite its unique and adept position, it is limited by its small size and restrictive resources compared to the U.S. Navy.

Seven of its eleven statutory missions are related to maritime security including: Ports, Waterways and Coastal Security, Drug Interdiction, Migrant Interdiction, Other Law Enforcement, Living Marine Resources, Marine Safety, Marine Environmental Protection, and Defense Readiness.⁹⁶ To highlight some of its maritime security efforts and capabilities, in Fiscal Year 2010, the Coast Guard conducted:

• 16,926 security boardings of small vessels in and around U.S. ports, waterways, and coastal regions

• 19,407 waterborne patrols of fixed security zones

• 4,015 escorts and boarding of high-capacity passenger vessels and vessels carrying certain dangerous cargoes

93 Department of Homeland Security, “Testimony of Admiral Thad W. Allen Before the Senate Appropriations Committee on the Coast Guard Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Request,” April 13, 2010, http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/testimony/testimony_1271366302572.shtm.

94 Naval Operations Concept 2010, 101.

95 O’Rourke, Homeland Security: Navy Operations - Background and Issues for Congress, 2.

96 Commandant of the United States Coast Guard, United States Coast Guard 2011 Posture Statement: with 2012 Budget in Brief (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 2011), 14.

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• 1,399 escorts of high-value Navy vessels transiting U.S. waterways

• removed a total of 202,439 pounds of cocaine, and 36,739 pounds of marijuana; seized 56 vessels, and detained 229 suspected smugglers

• deployed LEDETs aboard U.S. Naval and partner nation warships removed over 61,000 pounds of cocaine, 2,000 lbs of marijuana, detained 74 suspected smugglers, and seized 13 vessels

• interdicted 2,088 undocumented migrants attempting to illegally enter the United States

• continued the deployment of six patrol boats and their supporting and command elements to U.S. Central Command ⁹⁷

In addition to its security and law enforcement missions, the U.S. Coast Guard has other import statutory missions, like search and rescue and Marine Transportation System (MTS) management further extending its resources.⁹⁸ The Coast Guard’s daily operations offer testament to the sizeable efforts of the smallest military service. Undoubtedly, their small resources require focusing on the homeland, creating the need for their maritime security capabilities and authorities elsewhere in the maritime domain.

c. Overseas Maritime Security Roles

Because of the Coast Guard’s experience and authorities, they provide considerable resources to the U.S. Navy in order to help close the gap caused by the Navy’s lack of law enforcement capability. Besides deploying on ships, LEDETs also provide security training for partner nations as part of their mission set. ⁹⁹ In addition to LEDET support, the Coast Guard also deploys ships and other support elements, like Port Security Units, to combatant commanders and the U.S. Navy to help bolster maritime security needs.¹⁰⁰

97 Commandant of the United States Coast Guard, United States Coast Guard 2011 Posture Statement, 16–17, 19–20.

98 Ibid., 14.

99 Ibid., 20.

100 Naval Operations Concept 2010, 31.

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The U.S. Coast Guard also uses some of their valuable resources for maritime capacity-building assistance to other nations. For example, in 2010, the Coast Guard conducted the African Maritime Law Enforcement Partnership program, conducting extensive joint maritime training operations with West African naval forces.¹⁰¹ They conducted numerous training events around the globe, in all helping 51 nations, training a total of 2,503 host country participants.¹⁰² This is an important program because capacity building is an integral part of the U.S. maritime strategy. Since the Coast Guard resembles most other naval forces around the globe, their expertise and translatability to other partner nations is significant.