753

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton WMSL-753 transits Istanbul strait towards Black Sea- April 27, 2021
Cavit Ege Tulça
I thought the U.S. Coast Guard was supposed to protect the U.S. coast. Looks like I am wrong again.

The Legend-class national security cutter USCGC Hamilton (WMSL 753) pulls into Batumi, Sakartvelo (the official name of Georgia)

Supposedly, we are sending warships to the Black Sea to counter Russia's massive military buildup along the border with the Ukraine. I wasn't surprised by Russia doing that, I mean Ukraine declared war on them. It was kind of weird though, the declaration wasn't accompanied by any fanfare, it was done kind of quietly. Then Russia pulls back their forces claiming it was just part of a regularly scheduled military exercise.

Black Sea. Batumi at lower right, Istanbul at lower left and
Sevastopol (Russia's big naval base)  near the center.

One theory I heard is that the Biden's are pushing on Russia so they will keep using Ukraine's pipelines to ship natural gas to Europe because Ukraine gets paid for the use of their pipelines. I can't imagine they get paid very much, but maybe because it goes on 24 hours a day for years on end, it ends up being a pretty penny, and since the pipeline is already built, it's all gravy.

Hard to imagine that they are willing to go to war with Russia over this. I suspect the U.S. is just claiming Russia is the bad guy and is using this imaginary conflict to gain some political power points on the home court.

I haven't seen any evidence of Russia getting ready to attack Europe, but I've been wrong before and I am liable to be wrong again.

USCG Cutter Hamilton 753 carries a two inch gun on the bow and a CIWS (Close In Weapons System) on the aft portion of the superstructure.

Video via The Drive. Photo via Defense Blog.