Is there a plan to refit US Coast Guard vessels with more weapons in case of another large global war?

16 comments

1. We aren’t r/asktheDoD but.. I’d say there’s almost definitely some contingency plan involving weapons purchase and provisioning if shit goes down.

2. Not really necessary. The role the coast guard would play wouldn’t change much from what it is now. They currently have ships in the Gulf patrolling and were deployed in Vietnam as well.

3. I would not think so, we would just further equip the navy instead.

4. They kind of do, a National Security Cutter (NSC) is the most common kind of cutter that the CG sails. It has a 57mm cannon on the front and a few anti-air armaments as well. Other types of cutters and coast guard ships likewise have weapons on them.

5. Where do you guys come
   Up with this shit?

6. some coast guard ships used to have anti ship missiles at one point, it wouldn’t be a stretch that they could deploy those again on USCG cutters in the event of large scale warfare.

7. The Coast Guard is our “green-water navy.” It already has what it needs. *The Navy* is our blue-water navy.

8. If things have descended that far I’d imagine we have contingencies for it, yes.

9. The Coast Guard has the equipment appropriate for its mission both in peace and war

10. Sort of, yes. Legend-class cutters were designed to accommodate additional weapons systems if needed. As for the exact situations that would cause them to be given additional armament, that’s not public information.

    They’re already well-armed for the Coast Guard’s role, though, with a 57mm cannon, Phalanx CIWS, and multiple heavy machine guns.

11. See the thing is, before the ICBM, ships fought with mainly guns and some had smaller missiles. This meant as long as you had a ship big enough, you could toss a couple of 5”/38s, some Bofors or Oerlikons, and have an effective enough escort or bombardment ship. Not the case today.

12. In the 1980s, they tested out fitting the cutters with Harpoon anti-ship missiles

13. isn’t that what the navy is for?

14. I am sure there is. But in wartime those usually get fairly petty weapons that are easily issued anyway.

    In WWII they put depth charge racks on them, and I would guess some times rockets. In Vietnam they favored a peculiar kind of mortar. Now they would probably have at least MANPADs.

15. Sure, and we’ll be adding a standard combat course and counterinsurgency badges to the Girl Scouts curriculum, too.

16. Yes. The Coast Guard’s larger cutters are always built with extra space for potential upgrades. An upgrade program in the near future would likely feature SeaRAM systems for improved missile defense and twin quad-pack anti-ship missile launchers (NSM or Harpoon) for over-the-horizon capability. Even outside of war, the *Hamilton*-class cutters received [dramatic upgrades](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton-class_cutter#Combat_Suite) in the Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM) program during the Reagan-era naval buildup.