Coast Guard Creates Its Own Special Operations Command
With new threats emerging at home and abroad, the U.S. Coast Guard has created a new Special Missions Command (SMC) to oversee its “deployable specialized forces.” The move, officially unveiled today, comes as the Trump administration is increasing the use of these units for ship and drug interdictions around the globe. The Coast Guard is a uniformed military service, but has specific law enforcement authorities. Under Title 14 of the U.S. Code, its personnel can board vessels, carry out seizures, and make arrests.
The Coast Guard’s uniquely trained and equipped units are often at the tip of the spear for both the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), under which the service currently falls, and the Department of War (DoW). Some of its ‘deployable’ teams, for instance, recently helped interdict and seize Iranian-linked oil tankers in the Indian Ocean. Earlier this year, Coast Guard specialized forces chased a sanctioned Russian oil tanker from the Caribbean and across the Atlantic Ocean to take it over. They also play a large role in reeling in large amounts of illicit drugs, enforcing immigration laws at sea, protecting ports in the United States, and taking part in counter-terrorism operations.
Operation Pacific Viper 200k
The SMC will “fully integrate the service’s Deployable Special Forces under a single operational commander to provide oversight and advocacy, improve readiness, mission effectiveness, and interoperability,” according to the Coast Guard.
“The creation of the Special Missions Command is a vital evolution for our service,” Adm. Kevin Lunday, Commandant of the Coast Guard, said in a statement. “We are forging our most elite operators into a single, razor-sharp instrument of national power. The Special Missions Command is not an administrative change; it is an investment ensuring these elite teams are the best trained, equipped, and organized force possible, ready to protect the Homeland and support the Joint Force.”
The proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2027 includes funding to support an increase of 130 personnel “to manage the complexity of modern specialized missions,” a Coast Guard spokesman told us. It would also give the service $20.8 million “to establish a command to unify the service’s specialized tactical communities, streamline training, doctrine, and equipment procurement to enhance readiness and global responsiveness,” the spokesman added.
The new SMC “shifts specialized force management from a geographic model to a functional one,” the spokesman explained. “For example, in a complex scenario such as a high-consequence maritime threat at one of our nation’s major ports requiring the employment and integration of counter-terrorism teams (MSRT), deployable boat units (MSSTs), and hazardous material experts (NSF), the SMC streamlines the force-generation by reducing the need to coordinate between two geographical commands and headquarters and allowing us to mobilize with speed.”
“Under the legacy system, Area Commanders may consider coordinating across regional boundaries to align priorities; however, the SMC will have the full operational picture before any major incident occurs,” the spokesman noted. “A single operational commander for the SMC separates force generation from mission execution, standardizes tactical readiness, and creates a unified hub for Joint Force integration.”
By establishing the SMC, “the service is creating a singular standard for training, readiness, and integration,” according to the spokesman. “This uniformity ensures our teams are prepared to deploy at peak readiness and interoperability for any emergent crisis.”
The SMC will be commissioned on Oct. 1 and headquartered at the Coast Guard’s C5I Service Center facility in Kearneysville, West Virginia. It will include the following Coast Guard units, according to the service, which provided a description for each.
• “Maritime Security Response Teams serve as the Coast Guard’s first responders to maritime terrorism and other high-risk threats. They are equipped to conduct the nation’s most critical maritime security and defense operations at home or abroad, with both partner law enforcement agencies and joint services.”
Maritime Security Response Team (MSRT) 360
• “Tactical Law Enforcement Teams provide law enforcement expertise across the full spectrum of maritime response situations with specific focus on counter-trafficking and criminal networks attempting to exploit maritime transit zones.”
• “Maritime Safety and Security Teams are rapidly deployable boat teams that provide port, waterway, and coastal security capability to safeguard the public, protect the marine transportation system, and respond to maritime crime, sabotage, and terrorist activity.”
• “Port Security Units provide shoreside and waterborne security including point defense of strategic shipping, designated critical infrastructure, and high value assets in joint and combined expeditionary warfare environments.”
• “Regional Dive Lockers provide dedicated undersea capabilities for a variety of missions. These missions include ensuring the security of ports and waterways, maintaining aids to navigation, and conducting ship maintenance and repair, often in extreme environments like the remote polar regions.”
• The “National Strike Force provides highly trained technical experts and specialized equipment to Coast Guard and other federal agencies to prepare for and respond to the most complex crises and natural disasters, including oil, hazardous substances, and chemical, biological, radiation and nuclear incidents.”
National Strike Force Training at Camp Fuji, Japan
“The geopolitical landscape is evolving and the demand for Coast Guard Deployable Specialized Forces is at an all-time high,” said Capt. Robert Berry, Special Missions Command pre-commissioning team lead. “These forces are instrumental to the Coast Guard’s readiness and its role as a global leader in maritime contingency response. The service has always turned to its specialized forces to respond to national threats and disasters, and establishing this command is the natural next step to enabling our forces to lead the way at the tip of the spear.”
Contact the author: howard@twz.com