CGF 2010 Volume: 2 Issue: 5 (October)

Addressing the Congressional Shipbuilding Caucus at a breakfast on Capitol Hill, Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Robert Papp highlighted the need for the Coast Guard to move forward with its modernization goals. “My number one budget priority is the recapitalization of our agile and versatile fleet,” he said.

In January, nearly every one of the Coast Guard’s major cutters assigned to Haiti relief operations—10 of 12—suffered missionaltering breakdowns. Three ships were in such bad condition that they were forced to halt relief activities and leave the area for repairs.

“The age of our ships is the primary factor leading to the increase in unexpected equipment failures,” Papp pointed out. “The average age of our high endurance cutters is over 41 years, compared to 14 years for a U.S. Navy ship.”

Current projects focused on the acquisition of the national security cutter, the offshore patrol cutter and the fast response cutter are critical for enabling the Coast Guard to successfully carry out its 11 missions. Maintaining adequate funding levels for these projects is paramount.

“It’s a full court press right now for us to be able to replace those assets that are really becoming very expensive to operate,” USCG Chief Acquisition Officer Rear Admiral Ronald J. Rábago told CGF earlier this year. “There’s a steep cost curve when you have an old ship or an old aircraft that gets more expensive to operate, because the original manufacturer isn’t producing the spares any more. There is a point when ships or aircraft are just unsupportable, and the technology and the equipment and the systems are no longer able to do the missions as effectively as a new asset. We’re at that point with much of our large surface fleet.”

Sounds like the tipping point has already arrived. But understanding this and acting on it are two different things. Being always ready and doing more with less are different too. The upshot now, however, is that “more” means much more and is simply unsustainable.

I welcome your comments.

Mark Fitzgerald, Editor U.S. Coast Guard Forum This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it