Sea Control - Sea Control 314 - A Global Force for the Greater Good with CAPT Dave Ramassini

Episode Date: January 30, 2022

Links:The United States Coast Guard: A Global Force for the Greater Good, by CAPT Dave Ramassini, USNI Blog, October 19, 2021. To Small to Answer the Call, by CAPT Dave Ramassini, Proceedings, May 2017. Build a Great White Fleet for the 21st Century, by CAPT Dave Ramassini, Proceedings, May 2018.

Hey folks, Sherrod here. Today I'm joined by Coast Guard Captain Dave Ramassini, and we're discussing his call for a more stable Coast Guard budget. This episode was edited and produced by Jonathan Selling. Speaking of audio editors, we're looking to add to our team, so if you're interested, please email us at ccontrol at simsec.org with your resume. Finally, I want to take the opportunity to recommend our partners in the SimSec Podcast Network, The Bilge Pumps. You can find Alex, Jamie, Drack, and a pile of Iron Brew bottles wherever you download your podcasts.

On that note, I'll turn it over to Kimber's men. You're listening to Sea Control, hosted by the Center for International Maritime Security Aloha, shipmates, and welcome back aboard Sea Control My guest today is U.S. Coast Guard Captain Dave Ramassini And we'll be discussing his article for the U.S. and I blog The United States Coast Guard, a global force for the greater good So, Dave, welcome Would you mind telling the audience a little bit about your background?

Hi, good morning, Jared thanks for the opportunity. Great to speak with you again. I'm a Coast Guard captain, as you said. I'm currently assigned as the Coast Guard's Chief of Specialized Capabilities. In my career prior to that, I've had a great fortune sailing five cutters, commanding another five, including two in Northern Arabian Gulf, backing off Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and 2004. Most recently in Florida, I had the honor of bringing our first OCONUS National Security Cutter, the Kimbo, out to Hawaii from Huntington Ingalls and Pascagoula, increasing the Coast Guard capabilities in the Indo-Pacific. When I'm not at sea, I've taught at our Maritime Law Enforcement School as Senior Instructor.

I've been assigned Coast Guard Office of Counterterrorism Defense Ops, working with Navy strategic programs, and even stowed away in the Pentagon for three tours on the Joint Staff J-5, most recently in the J-3, in charge of North American operations, and then also in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, doing Homeland Defense integration and defense support of civil authorities. Originally, I'm a 92 grad from Air Academy and have two masters, thanks to the United States Navy from the Naval War College in Newport, also the Joint Advanced Warfighting School down in Norfolk. So, needless to say, simply put, I'm a very defense-oriented Coast Guardsman. Well, thanks again for coming on today, sir. As a reminder, all opinions are our own and not representative of any institution with which we might be otherwise associated.

So this article, sir, was the third and what we'll refer to as the Ramessini Trilogy. You also wrote Too Small to Answer the Call for Proceedings in May 2017, as well as Building a Great White Fleet for the 21st Century for Proceedings in May 2018. What were the respective theses for those articles? That's right. In Too Small to Answer the Call, I wrote about increasing demand for the Coast Guard, our authorities and capabilities on the international stage. as demand continues to grow, not only amongst the geographic combatant commanders, but along with the nation states in their AORs against a wide spectrum of transnational threats. You know, Coast Guard access with over our 60 plus bilateral multilateral agreements and other Coast Guard forms remain a true force multiplier for partner nations and combatant commanders alike

as these wide ranging threats that the Coast Guard, you know, is uniquely equipped to confront but often lack the capacity and staying power to more effectively do so. The Coast Guard remains a unique instrument in national and international security, but in the end, presence matters. And I built on the too small dance of the Kolfing when I wrote Build a Great White Fleet for the 21st Century, highlighting the threats have expanded from the more singular traditional 20th century nation-state threats during Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet area.

today there's a fuller spectrum of non-traditional threats including transnational criminal actors nation-state powers proxies and terrorists and other bad actors along with nation states that operate in the gray zone belong to the traditional threshold of war undermining world law both articles highlight potential capability of our national security card of the 418 foot 4500 ton ship could bring to the international arena you know and have done so you know from the south China Sea to the Black Sea. It's already demonstrated utility in these regions, providing soft U.S. presence, but still very noticed, extending a less provocative and more agile olive branch presence through international engagement, ranging from defense readiness

exercise to combating transnational crime, counter-drug, fisheries enforcement against illegal unreported and regulated fishing fleets. Important to note, when the Coast Guard takes on these outer hemisphere roles, there remains an opportunity cost in our approaches that we have to constantly weigh. So your latest article is calling for a more stable Coast Guard budget. I think the two previous articles, it would be fair to say they were calling for a larger Coast Guard budget, but this one is addressing specifically stability. Can you explain how the Coast Guard's budgeting and funding process is different from the other military services? Oh, I sure can. I You know, I want to quantify, right, the need for a more stable budget.

Again, as you mentioned in the other two articles, you know, it was calling for a more substantial budget. You know, being an armed force, yet one of 22 agencies within the Department of Homeland Security, the Coast Guard operates on roughly $10 billion annually to carry out our 11 statutory missions, right? So when you look at the Coast Guard and you look at the daily missions we do that the American public see, you know, and you can go down the list of our statutory missions, right, from living marine resource, domestic fisheries, search and rescue, the bread and butter of the Coast Guard, over 17,000 cases a year, 1,000 saved, over 20,000 plus assisted. Marine safety for the 103,000 commercial vessels that call in the U.S. and the 7 million crew that are vetted along with

11 million passengers that are out there that we vet. 45,000 buoys and beacons the Coast Guard maintains and aids the navigation to maintain a 5.6 trillion maritime transportation system 700 waterway coastal controls established by captains of our port each year ice operations the arctic antarctic our military outloads and exercise and global force management contributions with dod you know and the other law enforcement the drug interdiction you hear about with the Coast Guard, you know, most recently probably 320,000 pounds of drugs valued at 5.6 billion interdicted along with 500 smugglers. And then, you know, marine environmental protection is very important in our states with 10,000 pollution incident reports and the Coast Guard responded

to those. So when we talk budget, right, we have to realize that as the Coast Guard operates further from shore, there's always a question of, hey, you're competing with the home front and you're competing against those 22 federal agencies within DHS. So you talked about the competition within DHS for funding, but how does DHS get its funding versus a DOD and the Navy? Because I think that's like sort of the crux, the dilemma for the Coast Guard, if you will, when they address the stability piece. The funding is an interesting piece, again, within the 22 agencies that service the American public. So the competition for that is pretty stiff and steep and still nominal compared to the big DOD budget.

The Coast Guard is able to operate outside of that, particularly with our patrol forces, Southwest Asia that we have over in Bahrain and have since 2003. We've had overseas contingency operating funds that we've tapped and the Coast Guard works around by that. But the constraints of a baseline budget,

far smaller than DODs competing with the 21 other agencies other than the Coast Guard and DHS, is a, that's a real thing. And then part of your argument is based on the value of Coast Guard vessels to the geographic combatant commands. You sort of outlay what their Coast Guard does domestically. What is the Coast Guard doing for those GCCs? Yeah, I think that's the real bread and butter of this writing. When you look around the world and you look at the geographic combatant commands, you know, the Coast Guard offers tremendous access while also providing mutual

benefits to partner nations, you know, through partnership, through the enforcement, and even intelligence and information sharing in areas where big DOD may not be welcome or just can't go. The reality is, you know, the majority of nations worldwide have navies that perform more customary functions like that of the Coast Guard and often can relate to the size, the law enforcement and preservation rules that the Coast Guard has. Let's just take a trip, a quick brief trip around the combatant commands. You know, in North Carolina, the Coast Guard is pretty well known for search and rescue port waterway coast security the things i i covered already a lot of people don't realize the coast guard does the rotary wing air intercept in national capital

region uh as part of north column's operation noble eagle right we assist customs water protection with border support on the southwest border even have boats on on the rio grande these days in addition to our hurricane oil spill response and all domestic activities indo paycom the coast Guards enforced U.N. sanctions, U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea, conducted freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, and combats IUU fishing enforcement in the far reaches of Oceania. The Coast Guard remains a catalyst in the highly effective North Pacific Coast Guard Forum, building on common interests of partner nations that have a stake in the region. And that's all partner nations, none excluded. Of course, most are familiar with

Coast Guard's role in combating multi-billion dollar illicit smuggling and the U.S. approach in South Com AOR. You know, one just needs to go back and listen to any Southern Commanders Senate Armed Service Committee testimony where they speak fondly of the Coast Guard, even calling the service South Com's Navy, along with Central and South American, Dutch, and Canadian partners who contribute to detection, monitoring, interdiction, and endgame in the transit zone. The Coast Guard also provides law enforcement detachments to support partner nation naval assets and U.S. Navy ships, in addition to providing port security for South Com and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I'd be remiss in my current job if I didn't plug the tech and law

enforcement detachments and port security units who I now oversee in my current role. These Coast Guard deployable specialized forces have far-reaching global utility as well. In Africa, the Coast Guard is operating and will soon be seen again in the Gulf of Guinea, providing maritime security, promoting a rules-based order in the region, and working with other partner nations in the African Maritime Law Enforcement Partnership to combat list threats, including piracy. In addition to planned deployments here, the Coast Guard's even responded to short-notice global force management requests coming from the most senior levels at the Pentagon.

This area remains a concern as terrorism gateway across the Atlantic into the Western Hemisphere and should have our attention. Even as we as a nation pivot to the Pacific, the Coast Guard remains well-suited to the task. In Yukon, the Coast Guard is operating in the Mediterranean Black Sea, providing search and rescue best practices to nations faced with at-sea mass migration and even deployed our medium endurance cutters to participate in Operation Anouk with Canadian, Danish, and U.S. Navy forces and engage in high-latitude search and rescue exercise Argus off Greenland, operating alongside Canadian, Danish, and French naval forces. The Coast Guard has also served at the forefront of a myriad of multilateral venues, such as the Arctic Coast Guard Forum, promoting dialogue, again, with nations across shared common interests. In CENTCOM, the Coast Guard has provided sustained presence in that AOR since 2003. And it's in the process of recapitalizing our patrol for Southwest Asia's assets in Bahrain, specifically our 154-foot fast response cutter, who serve on the front line and actually replace our 110-foot island-class patrol boats that were built in the 1980s.

Many may recall the warning shots fired by Coast Guard 110-foot patrol boat during a Strait of Hormuz escort recently against Iranian aggressors. Those folks are on the front line. That's just a snapshot across the combatant command. It was what the Coast Guard has done lately. And I've more than covered. My next question was going to be on the Coast Guard's role in security cooperations. I think you provide about 15 different examples there. But you alluded to this to the this next question here in one of your previous answers. I'd like maybe you can go a little bit more in depth. What's the advantage of a Coast Guard vessel versus a Navy ship in some of these situations?

That's great. Let me just briefly talk theater security cooperation. In addition to what I mentioned, I'd also offer that the Coast Guard has mobile training teams as well as domestic schoolhouses that contribute to theater security cooperation. For instance, Training Center Yorktown in Petaluma, California, hosts countless international students in Coast Guard basic and advanced training programs. And our international maritime operators course out of Yorktown influences the world. We also have international partners in our 17-week officer candidate school and our four-year academy program in New London, Connecticut.

So I just want to touch on that theory of security and cooperation as, you know, oftentimes we'll get locked in the ship plane, but it's far more than that. The relationship you establish and maintain are important to that. The advantage of a Coast Guard vessel versus a Navy ship. This here is one that will anger a lot of your listeners maybe, but, you know, where do I start? beyond increased access for our nation with mutually beneficial partnership for allies and partners i'd offer the coast guard offers a more affordable national fleet asset for today's power projection in independent sustained presence demands where the navy's clever full arrows may not be necessary or the u.s may want to reduce tensions with russia china iran and north korea

who play up u.s grayhawk presence as provocative use of coast guard can help lower that from a boil to a simmer. I equate it to an olive branch over arrows approach, and we demonstrated that recently in the Black Sea with deployment of one of our national security cutters who also brought our fast response cutters around through the MED to replace the ships in Bahrain. Serving in Iraq toward op-Iraqi freedom back in 2003 and 2004 when I wasn't operating upriver, you know, I recall operating with the U.S. cruisers and destroyers, Australian and British frigates in the vicinity of oil platforms in northern arabian gulf the u.s assets seemed overkill for the mission and constrained by draft high-profile targets in the far reaches of northern similar

play out in centcom firsthand as navy decommissions your 179 foot typhoon class the patrol coastals and replace them with a you know comparatively far more costly toro combat ship which i speak about in the us and i blog the u.s coast guard a global force for the greater good Meanwhile, the Coast Guard, as I mentioned, is recapitalizing with more affordable and arguably more effective 154-foot fast response cutters to perform the same mission the 179 patrol coastles and 110s do today. In Indo-Pakom, a similar argument could be made as China shipbuilding continues to outproduce the U.S. and is projected to continue to do so at nearly twice the rate through 2030. There was a recent Forbes Online article this week published discussing how the Constellation frigate could help the U.S. close this production gap at a billion dollars a haul by having the U.S. industrial complex build out these hauls beyond the Marinette shipyard that won that contract.

And the author actually suggests, you know, the other major shipyards, your Bath, your Austal, your Huntington, could mass produce that ship all at the same time. You know, I think the author might be on to something as the rising tide does lift all boats. Starts and stops of ship production crushes craftsmanship and the talent pool we need. And a more cooperative approach in shipbuilding is entirely needed to steadily reinvigorate and strengthen U.S. industrial construction and repair bases. In my article, as I mentioned, upharming national security cutters, a potential mitigation in the shipbuilding deficit as well. in what I term the international security cutter. Adding this capability to our national fleet mix could serve to diversify and accelerate the national fleet frigate mix,

enhancing the capabilities of the 418-foot national security cutter and our future 360-foot offshore patrol cutter offer. These cutters both are up to 60 days unsupported, which when you think of that, 60 days unsupported, that's three to four times the independent staying power of a littoral combat ship. So you mentioned upgunning the National Security Cutters. What would that look like and what would be the benefit? I've offered everything from pursuing vertical launch capability to placing SeaWiz CRAM to most recently, in the last article, incorporating the Navy Strike Missile. Whatever the uparmament is, maintaining commonality with Navy would be a requirement.

I'd even offer the way to go about this would be to utilize Navy detachments, stop rate, whatever systems were selected for Coast Guard Cutters. Much like the Coast Guard provides law enforcement detachments on Navy halls, agreements could be put in place for Navy detachments on Coast Guard halls. The Coast Guard has some brief history going down this road. As you may recall, we once had Harpoon installed on a 378-foot Hamilton-class cutters, which the National Security cutters have now replaced after a 50-year service to the nation. So let's go back to the budgeting process for a second and some of your suggestions there. What was your suggestion for changing that process or operating the force in a way that guarantees more reliable funding? That's a fair question. I'll dare to go out of my swim lane a bit here. But there are obviously some high hurdles to clear, you know, as the budgets or what I term the providers and the frontline activities,

the users or combat commanders seem worlds apart. The service budget battles, in the end, remain an internal and external zero-sum self-preservation game where no one's willing to step back and look at the collective good. While combatant commanders arguably want more Coast Guard, there remains a disconnect with the budgets that produce these capital assets and a lack of influence that the end users, the combatant commanders, have over the service providers. In the end, combatant commanders are DOD leaders and will remain loyal to their service. The Coast Guard being outside of DOD only serves to complicate, you know, the financial support for this. While on a smaller scale, we've overcome this, as I mentioned, in overseas contingency operating funds for capabilities and, you know, Coast Guard patrol forces in Southwest Asia out of Bahrain, the larger capital projects are more challenging and remain a capability requirements mismatch. In the end, it'll take an external force. It'll take an OMB, an administration, or Congress to really peel the onion back and change the way we look at national fleet in terms of the value proposition.

And more holistically, look at the problem set it's designed to solve and go after. If we took a more business-oriented approach to national fleet and asked harder questions, investment versus what are the actual total life cycle costs, the operating maintenance, the crewing, the contracts, the repair, even the disposal, I'm confident the Coast Guard stewardship would gain attention and perhaps turn the tide on how we as a nation look at our national fleet construct. All right. Then one final question here. So we've seen a lot of discussion about increased maritime infrastructure spending. What changes did you suggest there for shipbuilding? When you look at shipbuilding again, at risk of angering a lot of different folks, I mean, it's hard to argue American shipbuilding is expensive. It just is. That's a fact. You know, one way to bring down the cost is through predictability, right? Eliminating the starts and stops and providing the shipbuilders more reliable forecasts for production runs. You know, this would require a cooperative federal government and remains highly unlikely.

You know, more predictability would enable the industrial base to invest more confidently in themselves, their process, etc., which many are already doing to some degree. So increasing predictability is one way to go at it. You know, stoking competition, as I mentioned, I think it was David Axe who wrote that article on Forbes online, perhaps a future SimSec guest. But stoking that competition and being very public about it and let the public judge quality delivery timeframe and cost in order to achieve best value for the nation. You know, public transparency is that it might just stoke efficiencies and promote best practices. But in the end, we need to grow the U.S. industrial base as China continues to be an outpacing threat. You know, and finally, and won't be what we'll receive by any or all would be to outsource a piece of the equation, right? And that would require a change in law and changing the Jones Act. And as you said, our conversation is not reflective of our service and what have you. But, you know, outsourcing a home and building it in a South Korea shipyard and bringing back and assemble the proprietary systems in the US of A is another way to go about it.

But again, I'm angry with a lot of people here. In the end, you know, the basics are this. We need to increase U.S. industrial based capacity to outpace competitors like China. We need to bring down costs to increase production scale and predictability. And also our nation's shipyard repair capacity as a supply demand mismatch there also continues to drive up services. We're a maritime nation.

We need to invest to remain a preeminent one. That's unfortunately all the time that we have for today. I'd like to thank my guest, Captain Dave Rameseen. So Captain, where can we find you online and what are you working on next? So I'm maintaining a relatively low profile. I guess you can find me on Facebook if you really started to do an expanding square search.

But, you know, where you sit is where you stand. And as the in charge of Coast Guard specialized capabilities, now I oversee the Coast Guard deployable specialized force programs, which include our maritime security response team, think counterterrorism, our dive program, our attack law enforcement teams, our chem, bio, rad, nuke capabilities, K-9, and even our national strike force when you think pollution emergency response, as well as all Coast Guard small arms ammunition. So as I look down the road to what the next project might be, it may be just kind of exploring the Navy Coast Guard relationships and attachments and what these deployable specialized forces can do. And I mentioned everything the Coast Guard offers to the American public. In the end, I really believe a lot of that is exportable. And if you can teach the nation's self-sufficiency to get where the U.S. is in that regard with how we operate our Coast Guard, I think a lot of those tasks translate. So I may look to do a project in the near term with the deployable specialized force capabilities of the Coast Guard and how to export those. Well, thank you again for coming on to the listeners. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you next time. © BF-WATCH TV 2021