The biggest thing the coast guard might have to intercept is, (ISPS lover's favorite scenario) a hijacked ULCC. The best way to do that is with a spec ops team, and maybe some intimidation - A shot accross the bow works nicely for me. When the drug runners start using submarines (For real! Come ON!), they'll worry about that, there and then.
It'd be simply ridiculous to outfit the USCG with harpoon, torpedoes, towed array sonar, and you name it... I'd say that dinghy launch bay stern is probably the best thing ever put on a coast guard cutter since the helicopter.
And if I was huggin' the EPIRB in the wet stuff, I'd be just as pleased to see an UAV as an aircraft. The UAV, much like the C-130, means help is coming.
Do they still drop rafts at all? I'd been told they didn't anymore... Or they didn't drop comm gears anymore... I don't frankly know about US SAR procedure (You'd think such things would be standardised, but no.)
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