C-130 wrote:
Thats the idea. If crewed by civilians then how are they supposed to "combat" anyone? The current IPV's carry small arms so cannot see them upgrading arms anytime soon.
We are not discussing naval vessels - we are postulating possible coastguard vessels.
I've swiped this from the Wiki site on the Greek coastguard - but many coastguards have similar missions - and modified is somewhat:
Law enforcement at sea, ports and coastal areas, prevention of illegal immigration and piracy
Surveillance of shipping, ports, sea space and borders.
Search and Rescue at Sea.
Protection of the marine environment, response to marine pollution incidents
But it gives an idea of some of what a coastguard should be tasked with - leave the fighting to the navy. Remember: police vs army. Clear cut distinction of areas of responsibility. Police - two cops in a bakkie - army a half dozen guys in a Rooikat. Same with coastguard. With some of the thinking here you can already see the problems piling up. We purchased 9 strike craft - but on no occasion could we ever have more than 6 at sea and usually fewer. Why? No crews available - could not afford them. Ditto with the type 12 frigates - only one occasion ever when three were at sea. Show me a trawler company where a third of it's fleet lies idle because of manning problems? Those guys spend inordinate amounts of time at sea - and every breakdown they have to come in for causes them pain - because they are losing money (crews get a pro-rata cut on the profits their catches make). At Sea Harvest we would turn around a trawler in an average time of 14 hours. That is unload fish, load ice and supplies - have planned maintenance done, refuel and off to sea again. Planned maintenance usually meant pulling a cylinder head off the main engine, pulling the piston and liner - reconditioning and replacing. Because they were commercial engines such a task usually took 4 men 5 hours. It also meant that every third of a year saw the main engine completely overhauled.
You want hulls at sea - enough to be seen by potential miscreants as a valid deterrent. Not a high tech vessel propping up a wall for most of its life.