My baby grows ...

An update from Andrew Scutro.

Top Navy leaders hope to add a fourth riverine squadron in the coming years, which would be the first major expansion for the force created almost four years ago.

“You may in the future see an increase in riverine capability,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead told Navy Times during an Oct. 13 interview.

He said the commitment to maintain one squadron in Iraq that began in spring 2007 keeps the force from more engagement with other navies.

“I’ve tried to do some training with some international partners, [but] we don’t have the flexibility or the capacity to do that sort of thing,” he said. “So I am looking to bump it up a little bit.”

The right answer at the right time. Hard power, soft power, and a great enabler for combined operations.

This capability needs to be expanded to include varied platforms like the Colombian Riverine forces have .... but one step at a time.

Good news.

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UPDATE: Ungh. Politicians. If we work under the idea that the WORST place you could homeport the Riverine Squadrons would be Coast Guard Station Kodiak - then I think we have the second worst.

Stennis Space Center could be tapped as the home for a U.S. Navy Riverines unit, a Vietnam-era security patrol brought back after 9/11 and now tasked with securing Iraq’s waterways.

Stennis would be “an ideal training facility,” said Stephen Peranich, chief of staff for Rep. Gene Taylor. The Hancock County site is being “strongly considered” by the Navy, he said.

While Stennis is NASA’s rocket engine test facility, it is also home to dozens of government agencies and private companies.

“Right now, it’s in the process of being examined,” he said. “Congressman Taylor fully supports locating the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command riverine unit in South Mississippi.”

Please, someone explain this to me - LT B will brief the "unique" weather challenges of Southern Mississippi while Sid will explain the terror of distance from ... everywhere - no someone explain to me why this is a good idea. I need cheering up today.