Since strengthening its oversight and management of C4ISR acquisitions, the Coast Guard has provided improved capabilities to its newest assets but the scope of upgrades to legacy cutters and aircraft has been reduced due to budget constraints, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General (IG) says in a report issued Tuesday.
The report says that the C4ISR enhancements have improved the service’s ability to perform its overall mission through greater situational awareness and with greater safety. For example, the report says one system installed aboard the National Security Cutter gives operators the ability to track items of interest beyond the coverage area of the vessel’s own sensors through the use of a common operating picture (COP), helping them “intercept vessels for surveillance and boarding.”
C4ISR improvements also help the NSC link its COP with Navy ships and aircraft, says the report, U.S. Coast Guard Command, Control, Communication, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Modernization.
The report also praises the Coast Guard’s planning for future capabilities, saying its revised plan for new systems should support the mission needs of the service’s final new class of cutters, the medium endurance Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC). However, it says the new systems planned for the OPC will be less capable in some cases than originally planned.
The report warns that because the Coast Guard lacks plans to “migrate to a common system baseline for the ships and aircraft included in the [C4ISR] modernization project, or to ensure effective support for multiple systems,” the service “may experience higher life-cycle costs and reduce mission effectiveness in the future.”
The Coast Guard has made, and continues to make, C4ISR improvements to its legacy cutters and aircraft but some enhancements have been canceled due to funding reductions.
“Without the planned C4ISR enhancements, legacy cutters and aircraft continue to rely on obsolete technology that hinders mission performance,” the report says. “For example, Coast Guard personnel aboard one legacy cutter reported experiencing problems with a malfunctioning surface search radar system, including the need to reboot the system several times a day and systems breakdowns while at sea. Failure of the radar system is considered the highest category of equipment failure, meaning a deficiency exists in mission-essential equipment that causes a loss of at least one primary capability onboard the cutter.”