CAIRNS, Australia—Standing on the bridge of a 270-foot U.S. Coast Guard cutter, Lt. Channing Meyer listed the recent upgrades to the 40-year-old ship.
A new deck gun. Reliable power generators. An improved electronic navigation system. And better internet connectivity.
“This thing runs like it was built yesterday,” he said a short time later inside a hallway on the Harriet Lane, which was docked at a naval base in the northern Australian city of Cairns. “Maybe even better.”
The Coast Guard transferred the Harriet Lane to the Pacific from the U.S. East Coast a few months ago, part of the Biden administration’s latest move to compete with China for influence in the region. U.S. officials view the Coast Guard as a potent soft-power tool in the Pacific, which is home to U.S. military assets and strategic waterways that could be crucial in a military confrontation over Taiwan.
But the Coast Guard is deploying retrofitted vessels such as the Harriet Lane because a plan to build a new class of more modern ships will take years—and has been bogged down by delays and cost increases. At the same time, the Coast Guard’s enlisted workforce is 10% below its authorized strength, one of the largest shortages in its 233-year history, and it is expected to worsen this year, officials said.
China, meanwhile, has reinforced its coast guard with more than 20 former navy corvettes and is increasingly asserting its territorial claims in the South China Sea, where Chinese fishing vessels double as a maritime militia. Beijing is also actively seeking influence in the Pacific, after scoring recent wins such as persuading the tiny island nation of Nauru to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan in January.
Certain Chinese coast guard vessels may have longer-range guns compared with the Harriet Lane, some analysts said, but the move could still pay off. The aim isn’t to directly take on China’s coast guard in high-seas confrontations, such as the ones playing out between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea. Instead, the Harriet Lane’s main role will be to shuttle between Pacific island nations, offering law-enforcement support and training.
U.S. officials hope the increased Coast Guard presence will help build closer relations with island nations—and convince them they are better off joining with Washington instead of Beijing. The white hulls of Coast Guard ships are seen as a softer touch than Navy ships and ideal for dealing with smaller nations that don’t have their own militaries.
“They have different resources than the Navy a lot of times,” Christine Elder, a longtime U.S. diplomat who is now a consul general in Australia, said from the deck of the Harriet Lane—which will be based in Hawaii but stopped in Cairns on its inaugural 79-day patrol in its new role. “Our Coast Guard is uniquely equipped to look at these missions.”
The Coast Guard now has 11 cutters based in Hawaii and Guam, the U.S. territory in the western Pacific. Some of those ships also conduct missions to Pacific island nations, but the Harriet Lane has greater range and endurance than many of them—and will be the flagship of the Coast Guard’s efforts to increase support to island nations.
China’s coast guard, in contrast, is more focused on the South China Sea, according to analysts. But its largest ships can deploy deeper into the Pacific, which could be made easier if China negotiates security deals with more Pacific island nations.
The Pentagon’s 2023 report on China’s military said China’s coast guard has more than 150 regional and oceangoing patrol vessels, 50 regional patrol combatants that can be used for limited offshore operations, and 300 coastal patrol craft.
“One Coast Guard cutter is not going to really make much of a difference in a shooting war,” said Mike Green, a former official in the George W. Bush administration who is now chief executive at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. “This really isn’t about increasing U.S. firepower.”
Pacific island nations often don’t have the resources to patrol swaths of the ocean, and Coast Guard vessels like the Harriet Lane help them fight illegal fishing and transnational crime. In some nations, the Coast Guard takes along local law enforcement officers and conducts boardings on their behalf.
The Coast Guard presence also gives the U.S. the opportunity to monitor China’s fishing fleets, which Beijing can use to put economic pressure on island states and cultivate influence. Illegal fishing is a big concern for island nations, and Chinese vessels have been documented illegally fishing around some islands—though Beijing has said its fishers must comply with local laws.
“Indirectly blocking Chinese access in the Pacific islands by offering an alternative way for small island countries to protect their livelihoods and sovereignty is one way the U.S., working with other allies, can curb Chinese maritime coercion from migrating further south,” said Patrick Cronin, Asia-Pacific security chair at the Hudson Institute, who served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve.
But the aging Coast Guard fleet is a problem. A Government Accountability Office report outlined issues with propulsion, power systems, corrosion and mold on the medium-endurance cutters, the class of ship that includes the Harriet Lane and a smaller 210-foot version. Spare parts for obsolete generators, for example, are hard to get, and repairs can take 10 months.
In one instance, mold was growing on pipes directly above a bunk where the crew sleeps, the report said. In another, constant wetness in the galley, where food is prepared, led to corrosion on the exterior hull. A davit, a crane-like device used to lower small ships into the water, malfunctioned in another episode and stranded crew members 4 feet above the water.
So before its move, the Harriet Lane got $21 million in upgrades—including even basic items such as fresh decks and ceilings, according to the crew. The Coast Guard plans to retrofit several other medium-endurance cutters to keep them in service while new boats are being built.
“While we are 40 years old, we still bring a lot, we’re still very capable,” said Cmdr. Nicole Tesoniero, Harriet Lane’s commanding officer.
Before stopping in Australia, the Harriet Lane spent a few days patrolling the seas around the island nation of Vanuatu. With local authorities, the Harriet Lane’s crew boarded 12 ships that all turned out to be Chinese. The boardings were amicable and the violations were minor, such as not logging their catches properly or using incorrect buoys, crew members said.
“We’re not targeting Chinese vessels,” Meyer said. “That’s just what was out there.”
The Coast Guard has other plans for the Pacific—if it can get the money from lawmakers. It is planning to get more of its new 154-foot fast-response cutters for the Indo-Pacific and wants to outfit forward operating locations in remote areas to support the ships. It is also looking at deploying another cutter to the region to serve in a similar role as the Harriet Lane.
“We have some great bipartisan support on the Hill, people who understand us and understand the imperative of investment in the Coast Guard—but there’s also just as many who don’t really even, just don’t know who we are,” said Adm. Linda Fagan, the Coast Guard commandant, at a think tank event in October.
Meyer said the Coast Guard is proud of doing more with less. But there’s a limit.
“We can’t always do more with less,” he said. When asked what else the Coast Guard needs, he said: “It’s everything. It’s people, it is assets, it is resources. It’s all of the above.”