American maritime roles include Coast Guard work and deployments by destroyers, carriers, and amphibious ships. An Arleigh Burke destroyer supplies combat capabilities beyond those required for some policing or counter-smuggling missions. Assigning those tasks to a destroyer uses an expensive asset for a limited mission. The force-structure problem is the availability of vessels suited to each mission.
Chapter · 1:39:16-1:43:23
The US Navy's layered diplomacy problem
Different costs and availability affect the roles of the US Coast Guard and the Navy's destroyers, carriers, and amphibious ships.