Coastal patrol boats boost naval presence.

• Author: Lundquist, Edward
• Position: Homeland Security News

* A little more than a decade ago, the U.S. Navy's coastal patrol boats were destined to be decommissioned. But after 9/11, the Navy came to realize that the small PCs could fill a big gap. Today, the Navy operates 13.

Designed to support special operations teams, the lead ship of the class, USS Cyclone (PC 1 ) was commissioned in 1993, and the last of the 14 ships, USS Tornado (PC 14) joined the fleet in 2000.

When the Navy decided there wasn't a mission for PCs and was going to divest them, five were loaned to the Coast Guard. One of those five was subsequendy transferred to the Philippines. But as the need for a small patrol ship became obvious, the Navy asked for the Coast Guard to return the PCs, and no more PCs were made available for foreign transfer.

Today they are busier than ever, with 10 forward deployed with the U.S. Fifth Fleet in the Arabian Gulf providing coastal patrol, surveillance and interdiction, escort of larger ships, protection to maritime infrastructure and participation in exercises with allies and regional partners.

"This class of ship is ideal for working in this area," said Capt. Brendan McLane, commander of Destroyer Squadron 50. "They greatly increase our ability for condnued maritime security operations and theater security cooperation in Fifth Fleet."

U.S.-based crews used to rotate to PCs stationed in the Gulf. Now all the ships have permanent crews, and families can accompany sailors to Bahrain.

Under the rotational crew model, there were five PCs stationed in Bahrain, operating in the Fifth Fleet, and eight were stationed at the Little Creek Amphibious Base in Norfolk for training, with 13 crews rotating between them on six-month deployments. Now, under the permanent crew model, the training platforms are no longer needed, so three Norfolk-based PCs moved to Mayport, Florida. Today there are 10 PCs stationed in Bahrain manned by 10 crews. More than $13.8 million in costs associated with rotating crews are projected to be saved every year.

"The well-being of our sailors and families is critical to the accomplishment of our missions and this shift to permanent crews has improved that," said McLane.

According to McLane, the small PCs have a large impact on overall surface combatant posture in the Fifth Fleet area of responsibility.

"The PCs comprise 22 percent of the surface fleet out here," said McLane. The ships are in the northern, southern and central portions of the Arabian Gulf, and they are doing the...