There are 211 aircraft of all types in the USCG inventory (By comparison there are 281 aircraft in the 101st ABN Div (AASLT) ). Japan is number 10 on the world list with 380 Fighter Aircraft in its inventory (not counting Rotary wing aircraft), so my guess would be that the CG isn't very high on the list of world "Air Forces" by sheer numbers.
But you're comparing to the U.S.
It's by far the smallest branch in the U.S. military, and yet, it's large when compared to other countries. The U.S. Coast Guard is often closer in size and structure to other navies.
In fact, the Coast Guard is the sixth largest navy in the world. Hmmmm.
I was at PANAMAX few years ago, a small portion of that time was spent on a U.S. Navy ship. One of the Costa Rican officers told me he had asked to be stationed on the 270' Coast Guard cutter because he liked working with the Coast Guard, and it was closer to what he knew.
Yes, 211 fixed wing, and rotary aircraft seem small.... to those of us used to the U.S. military, but it's not so small when considering the rest of the world.
Bruno, you might like this: I'm using general numbers here and random units....
I used to coordinate the Coast Guard's role in the Andrews AFB Air Show. Each year we were have.... what felt like a million joint meetings.... "The Army will have a XXXx and XXXX and XXXX and XXXX and XXXX and three XXXX and XXXX and XXXX...." And this would go on.... the Army would have three... maybe five slides with different aircraft. Then the Air Force would list another 5 slides of 20-30 different aircraft (I'm probably totally off on the numbers) and the Navy would roll out 3-5 slides and the Marine Corps would roll out 3-5 slides....
And then the Coast Guard. I could generally get an MH-65 Dolphin, and more likely an MH-60 Jayhawk.... and then I would push for an HC-130 Hercules, an HC-144 Ocean Sentry and an HU-25 Guardian (which pilots call "falcons"). That was the plan in the first meeting. And then, over the next few months.... the aging fleet and operational needs would slowly eat away at that.
Air Station Cape Code didn't want to send HU-25s because they had a knack for breaking down away from the AIRSTA.... which because an operational concern.
Air Station Atlantic City could spare MH-65 Dolphins because they had some mechanical issues.... or the MH-60 Jayhawks were already being used in another part of the country.
The HC-144s were a good bet because they were coming from a training unit... but HC-130s were harder to free up.
So at the end of the process, I probably had one helicopter and MAYBE one plane (but I feel like sometimes I only had one airframe).
WHY?! LITS?! WHYYYYYY?!?!?!
Unlike many of the DOD-supplied aircraft, the U.S. Coast Guard planes and helicopters were coming from operational units. While those planes or helicopters were on a ground at Andrews AFB, they could have been used in SAR cases off the coast. The units that sent them knew that too. If Air Station Atlantic City has a total of six MH-65s, and one or two are broken, or dedicated to other operations, they only have four left. If they send one to DC for a week/weekend, they only have three. That puts a bit of a strain on that command.
It was an interesting process, each year, realize how SMALL the Coast Guard was, and how few options we really had. Luckily the other services proved to be very understanding.... even when if a command had to pull support late.
