Deep Trouble

The Coast Guard's Deepwater modernizingprogram hits a rough patch.

The Coast Guard is a rarity among federal bureaucracies. It has few detractors, a clear mission, a widely respected can-do culture, and the kind of bipartisan support on Capitol Hill other agencies can only dream of. So it's noteworthy when some of the agency's most powerful boosters in Congress start blasting its acquisition strategy and calling for investigations.

What has the Coast Guard in hot water is a plan to revise its long-term modernization program, known as Deepwater. The agency's largest-ever acquisition program, begun in 1996, would replace or modernize cutters, aircraft and communications equipment critical to performing offshore missions. In March, the agency submitted a revised implementation plan to Congress that would extend the program from 20 years to 25, and reduce the total number of boats and aircraft purchased. Under the revised plan, the Coast Guard would refurbish more older cutters and aircraft.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, told Homeland Security Department Secretary Michael Chertoff that the plan would "cripple the service." In an April 7 letter to Chertoff she wrote: "Coast Guard assets are failing at an alarming rate . . . The fleet of 378-foot cutters experiences one engine room casualty every patrol. Unscheduled maintenance days have increased over 400 percent over the past five years."

In a joint letter March 15 to Office of Management and Budget Director Joshua B. Bolten, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., the chairwoman and ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, argued, "The nation simply cannot afford to wait until 2024 or later for the Coast Guard to employ more effective and reliable assets to achieve more effective homeland security." Lieberman and Collins believe Deepwater should be accelerated to a 10-year schedule.

A recent study by the RAND National Defense Research Institute found that Deepwater will not give the Coast Guard adequate capabilities to fulfill its post-9/11 responsibilities. According to RAND: "To satisfy these demands, the [Coast Guard] will need the capabilities of twice the number of cutters and 50 percent more air vehicles than it has been planning to acquire over the next two decades. It cannot gain these capabilities merely by buying the assets in the current program over 10 or 15 years instead of over 20 years. Rather, it can gain these capabilities only by acquiring significantly more cutters, unmanned air vehicles and helicopters than are in the current acquisition program, or by mixing into the program other platforms and technologies that provide the same or additional capabilities."

Whether or not the nation can afford to wait two decades or longer for Deepwater to come to fruition, it's hard to see how the Coast Guard could afford to do it earlier, despite dramatic budget increases. Between 2002 and 2006 (assuming Congress approves the agency's fiscal 2006 $8.1 billion budget request), the Coast Guard will have seen a 45 percent funding boost. But as the agency's budget has grown, so have its responsibilities.

The administration's 2006 budget request represents a $570 million increase over 2005, but much of it would go to cover mandatory pay raises and higher operating expenses for homeland security programs, according to an analysis by the Government Accountability Office (GAO-05-364T).

It will take more than imploring letters from politicians to fast-forward Deepwater. Without a serious infusion of money-something no one is predicting-the program is likely to muddle along on its current course. But the Coast Guard, known for its pledge, Semper paratus ("Always ready"), might need to consider a new motto.