Coast Guard launches Homeland Security Cutter-Ocean program with civilian vessel support

The U.S. Coast Guard is taking a page from the U.S. Navy's operating manual and beginning to hire in civilian-crewed tonnage for sealift support, freeing up transit days for its cutters to remain at sea and stay on mission hunting drug-runners.

The service's new Homeland Security Cutter-Ocean program is a newly-launched plan to bring in commercially operated vessels that can carry out the basic logistics on behalf of the cutter fleet, and specifically the Fast Response Cutters - small, capable vessels that can do the job of medium-sized cutters but are constrained in range and endurance by stores capacity. Having a "mother ship" that can deliver supplies and conduct crew change at sea - much like the function that a reefer ship performs for a high seas fishing fleet - will keep Coast Guard-manned law enforcement assets deployed in the mission area for longer.

"As demands on the Coast Guard continue to grow, we must find innovative ways to sustain our fleet and keep our crews focused on the mission," said Vice Adm. Nate Moore, Deputy Commandant for Operations. "Homeland Security Cutter-Ocean will help us deliver critical supplies and personnel more efficiently while increasing the endurance and effectiveness of our operational forces."

The contract with Bordelon provides for the use of one offshore vessel, crewed by civilians and overseen by coastguardsmen. Bordelon's team will handle all the vessel operations, and the Coast Guard personnel will take care of the mission and the logistics - a pattern the service has previously experienced with the rapid delivery of the commercial icebreaker Aiviq, which came with a civilian crew in order to speed up the handover of a modern, technically complex vessel.