Coast Guard missions demand updated technology, commandant says
The U.S. Coast Guard sends personnel into treacherous waters without modern equipment because the agency does not have enough money to replace aging surveillance and communications technology, the service's top officer told Senate appropriators on Tuesday.
In its 2012 budget request, the Coast Guard, part of the Homeland Security Department, has asked Congress for $642 million to recapitalize its aging fleet of cutters and $166.1 million to modernize equipment, such as communications and information management systems.
"We cannot continue to ask these young patriots to go out to sea in 40-year-old ships," Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Robert J. Papp Jr., told the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee at a hearing on the agency's budget request. "Plus we need to give them the proper tools to work effectively out there -- new sensors, new radars and survivable ships that will take them out of these very dangerous conditions like in the Bering Sea, the Gulf of Alaska and the vast reaches of the Pacific." The average age of a Navy ship is 20 years -- half that of a Coast Guard vessel, he added.
But federal auditors last month reported that poor acquisition strategies have delayed upgrades. The budget would increase funding for staff to oversee contracting and systems development.
The Coast Guard has a well-documented history of acquisition workforce challenges as far as obtaining skilled personnel and setting appropriate staffing levels, auditors with the Government Accountability Office wrote in an April report. According to auditors, most major programs have ongoing cost, schedule or execution risks.
"Unrealistic budget planning for the Coast Guard's acquisition portfolio exacerbates these challenges and will likely lead to more program cost and schedule issues," wrote John P. Hutton, GAO director of acquisitions and sourcing management. "The Coast Guard has several actions under way to further improve acquisition policies and workforce shortfalls, as well as address budget planning issues, but it is too soon to tell whether the actions will be effective."
The 2012 budget proposes spending $110.2 million to sustain the current workforce of 794 acquisition personnel. It asks for an additional $2.3 million to hire 17 new staff, Coast Guard officials told Nextgov on Wednesday. Among the technology projects under way that are slated for new funding is the Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance suite. The agency is rolling out the new capabilities in phases, next year installing upgrades on existing ships and providing tools to offshore patrol cutters.
The Coast Guard also is buying new search-and-rescue communications equipment for shallow-water missions within 20 miles of shore. Fiscal 2012 funding would go toward completing deployments in Lake Michigan, San Juan, Honolulu and Guam, as well as replacing outdated VHF systems in the Western Rivers Project that includes the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.
The service also plans to develop and test a logistics information management system for facilities, ships and air operations.
The Coast Guard next year plans to add information-sharing and sensor management tools to three so-called Interagency Operations Center sites. The new systems are expected to help federal personnel share national security information in vulnerable ports and coastal areas. GAO last month noted that this program has been hurt by acquisition workforce shortages. As of March, the office had filled only 11 of 27 positions.
"Decisions made today will either sustain a Coast Guard capable of responding to future or man-made disasters. . . .The other result could be a Coast Guard that's less capable and diminished in force," Papp told the senators.
The initial version of this story misstated how the proposed 2012 budget would support acquisition personnel resources. The story has been corrected.