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From: terryr@ogccse.ogc.edu (Terry Rooker)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Coast Guard and Navy Information Wanted
Message-ID: <11265@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 9 Nov 89 15:27:59 GMT
References: <11145@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Organization: Oregon Graduate Center, Beaverton, OR
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Approved: military@att.att.com



From: terryr@ogccse.ogc.edu (Terry Rooker)
In article <11145@cbnews.ATT.COM> waynea@cadnetix.COM (Wayne Angevine) writes:
>
>
>From: waynea@cadnetix.COM (Wayne Angevine)
>
>   I would like references to books showing the types of Coast
>   Guard vessels in use from approximately WWII to the present.
>   I'd prefer something a bit more entertaining than a Jane's,
>   and a lot of color pictures would be helpful.

You can try US Samll Combatants, by Friedman (USNI).  It is a 
thourough account of small vessels from the turn of the century
on to the present.  The emphasis is on naval vessels, but he does
include information on coast guard vessels.  He has excellant
anecdotal information and the details are usually good.  Beware,
for modelling purposes he is occasionally lax about exactly the 
sort of detail modelers want.  In one of his articles he noted a
.30 cal mg in the aft position of a PBR, and the picture clearly
showed a M2HB .50 cal mg.

>   Secondly, I'd like to know how naval vessels are classified.
>   (Perhaps I should say "categorized.")  What, for example,
>   makes a destroyer a destroyer, not a frigate or a cruiser?

It used to be size (through the early sixties), and function.  Now it
is more a matter of the intended role of the ship (and unfortunatley
political concerns).  An ASW escort is a frigate or corvette (if very small).
A general purpose class is a destroyer, although individual classes may 
specialize.  The Spruance class DD are ASW vessels, while the Kidd class 
built on the same hull are AAW vessels.  AAW battle group escorts are
called cruisers.  Aviation ships that carry more than about a dozen 
aircraft are called carriers (of various types).  

Politics enters into it for various reasons.  In the US it is usually 
because there is some trend in Congress, and the budget request has
to satisfy that trend.  Because of the committment to nuclear powered
carriers the navy was trying to build a fleet of CGN's as escorts.  They
would have the aegis system.  They were too expensive, so the navy switch
to the conventional Spruance hull and built the Ticonderoga class.  There 
had been talk about building a class of DD's with the aegis system, but that
had to be concelled with the Ticonderoga class. Instead the Burke class is under
construction with a simpler version of the aegis.  The Soviets call their
large helicopter carriers ASW cruisers so they can pass through the Dardenelles.
The boundaries aren't very firm, so if anyone is confused by the name categories
you are justifiably confused.

--
Terry Rooker
terryr@cse.ogc.edu