Defence analyst Dr Sanjay Badri-Maharaj says instead of spending US$74 million to purchase two new Coast Guard vessels, Government should focus on repairing and maintaining the country’s existing air and sea assets.
He said the 12 vessels procured for the T&T Coast Guard from Damen Shipyards in 2015 are operational and four AW139 helicopters, which are currently grounded, as well as two C-26 aircraft, should be repaired and upgraded.
During his Conversation with the Media at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s, last Thursday, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said the two Cape class vessels being acquired have the range and capability for patrolling T&T offshore oil fields, drugs and weapons interdiction and anti-smuggling and anti-piracy operations, Dr Rowley is entirely correct in being concerned about our East coast oil exploration activities and the need to establish effective patrols,” Badri-Maharaj said.
However, he warned that the aluminium hulled vessels may not fare too well in the sea conditions in some of the areas they are expected to patrol. Although they have an excellent range for their type, they lack the seakeeping qualities, weapons and sensor arrays and endurance for some of the exercises they will undertake.
Badri-Maharaj, a former consultant to the Ministry of National Security, said he had no issue with Austal supplying ships to the Coast Guard or with Cape class vessels. His concern is that the vessels being acquired, though larger, are less well armed and less capable than the four Damen SPa 5009 vessels procured for the Coast Guard in 2015-2016 and had no systems common with the existing Coast Guard fleet except the engines.
He said the Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) ordered by the Manning administration made more sense, but even those acquisitions had been done without adequate preparation and there were glaring gaps in research on the vessels leading to the cancellation of the order and subsequent arbitration.
The widely-published author on security issues, who has a PhD and MA from the Department of War Studies King’s College London, said Cape class vessels have been plagued with serious problems in their propulsion systems. Vessels used by the Australian Border Force (ABF) experienced some problems in deploying their smaller rapid response craft due to a design fault in the davit or crane used to lower it into the water.
According to Badri-Maharaj, there are more pressing issues of manpower management and the low vessel utilisation in the Coast Guard which need to be addressed. He said the main gap in T&T’s border security was the lack of adequate air support to the Coast Guard.
He said the grounding of the four AW139 helicopters because the country—correctly in his view—declined to pay the exorbitant annual maintenance costs off US$29 million, other options should be explored.
He said the grounding of the helicopters combined with issues with the availability of the two C-26 fixed-wing aircraft had led to severe deficiencies in the country’s surveillance capabilities, allowing more illegal guns, narcotics people to enter the country.
Badri-Maharaj said he was part of an operational audit of the Coast Guard in 2013 and strongly recommended that at least four of the six vessels be retained in service for operations in the calm waters of the Gulf of Paria on the western coast where their speeds of between 34-40 knots and the shallow draft would be most useful.
With resources at a premium, the focus should be on maximum utilisation of existing assets and restoring adequate air support to T&T’s border security agencies, he said.