CIMSEC – The United States should designate the U.S. Coast Guard as its lead agency for maritime security in the Western Hemisphere. In military command and control terminology, this would make the Coast Guard the “supported” service with all other armed services and federal agencies as “supporting” services. Such a designation would reverse the customary approach for the Navy to lead at sea, but this reversal is long overdue.

USNI News – U.S. and Taiwanese officials revealed this week that a joint exercise was held at an unspecified time between their respective Coast Guard agencies.

Breaking Defense – The US Coast Guard wants technology solutions to take down unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) as a way to bolster port security.

The War Zone – The risk of attacks on ships in port and harbor infrastructure from UUVs is growing and the USCG wants defensive solutions.

Breaking Defense – The Coast Guard is deploying more than a dozen Saildrone Voyagerunmanned surface vessels (USVs) to the Great Lakes and the North Atlantic region in an effort to bolster maritime domain awareness. 

USNI News – A U.S.-Philippine patrol near Scarborough Shoal this week amid Manila’s concerns of potential structures placed by Beijing at the South China Sea hotspot. 

USNI News – The Coast Guard has spent close to $7.7 billion of the nearly $25 billion awarded to it by the Trump administration in July, investing in new hardware, infrastructure and personnel to support the largest overhaul of the service since World War II.

USNI News – A U.S. Coast Guard team and additional federal law enforcement, with support from the U.S. military, seized a Russian-flagged oiler tanker that the U.S. says violated American sanctions, coinciding with the seizure of a second tanker in the Caribbean.

The War Zone – The pursuit of the tanker Marinera comes as the U.S. continues pouring aviation assets into the U.K. ahead of a potential boarding effort.

Breaking Defense – The White House in 2024 and 2025 prioritized rebuilding America’s icebreaker fleet. But how long will that last?

Breaking Defense – A government watchdog is sounding the alarm that a major Coast Guard shipbuilding program is at risk of “costly rework and “schedule delays” due to the service’s choice to begin construction prior to having a stable ship design.

USNI News – Coast Guard law enforcement operations in the Caribbean Sea are continuing as the Pentagon formulates its mission in U.S. Southern Command following a lethal military strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat.

USNI News – Ahead of a planned boost in icebreaker programs, the Coast Guard has commissioned its first major icebreaker since 1999.

CIMSEC – If the United States is serious about building capacity to operate at-sea in the high latitudes, it is time to look south. 

Breaking Defense – “We don’t have enough parts … and we’re deferring on dry docks. That will all begin to compound for more costs, not less, and it is eroding readiness,” Adm. Linda Fagan told Breaking Defense.

USNI News – American, Canadian and Finish officials committed to the joint development, construction and maintenance of polar icebreakers with the signing of the Icebreaker Collaborative Effort Pact in Washington today. 

Breaking Defense – Faced with an increasing number of missions, personnel and materiel readiness shortfalls, and “finite resources,” the US Coast Guard today published its first “Operational Posture” document, which a senior officer said is intended to convey to lawmakers and the public how stretched his service has become.

USNI News – The Coast Guard will use Juneau, Alaska, as the homeport for its commercially procured icebreaker.The Coast Guard is in the process of acquiring a commercial icebreaker, named Aiviq, built as a support vessel for Arctic oil exploration. The service plans to convert the ship into a medium polar icebreaker, a process estimated to take two years.

USNI News – An electrical fire in a transformer forced USCGC Healy (WAGB-20), one of two American icebreakers, to cancel its Arctic mission

USNI News – Coming up short 10 percent of its required enlisted force means the Coast Guard “can’t crew all our ships” and has had to “temporarily shutter some of our smaller stations,” the vice commandant said Wednesday.

Breaking Defense – The US, Canada and Finland announced today a new trilateral effort, dubbed the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort or “ICE Pact,” to work together on the production of a “fleet” of new polar icebreakers, in what a US official said was a “strategic imperative” in the race of dominance of the high north.

War on the Rocks – All is not lost for the United States in the Indo-Pacific. Both Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia recently signed agreements that will allow the U.S. Coast Guard to enforce maritime law on behalf of those countries without having a representative of those countries onboard U.S. vessels. The United States should build on this momentum, developing a coordinated international approach to the region that will establish a combined force of coast guards and maritime law enforcement agencies, with a persistent focus from this force on fortifying international norms.

Naval News – U.S. Coast Guard Forces Micronesia Sector Guam has only existed in its current form for a few years, but, in that time, it’s had a massive impact on U.S. re-engagement with Oceania.

The War Zone – The Coast Guard is far from meeting ice-breaking mission demands in the strategic Arctic region and currently only has one heavy icebreaker.

Barents Observer – The US Coast Guard vessel sailed in formation with Norway’s KV Svalbard from the ice-covered waters near Russia’s Franz Josef Land en route to conduct joint exercises in the Barents Sea.