By Calvin Biesecker
The Coast Guard is making unrealistically high assumptions about the budgets it can expect to receive in the coming years, a problem that could manifest itself in program delays and waiting to make trade-offs in programs that should be considered today, a Government Accountability Official (GAO) said yesterday.
However, a Coast Guard Admiral said he fully understands the nation’s fiscal situation but that “our requirements are our requirements” and a minimum level of funding is needed to aggressively recapitalize assets or costs will increase for new and legacy systems.
“I understand that we’re asking more than we’ve gotten before but I believe…that we’ve proved our value to the nation and it’s really up to Congress and the will of the people if they’re willing to make that investment in their Coast Guard,” Vice Adm. John Currier, deputy commandant for Mission Support, told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on the Coast Guard. “I think it’s justified.”
The biggest risk to Coast Guard’s acquisition efforts is how it is marrying resources to plans, John Hutton, director of Acquisition and Sourcing Management at the GAO, told the panel. For example, the Coast Guard’s long-term budget plan assumes it will receive $2.4 billion in acquisition funding in FY ’15, yet the service hasn’t received more than $1.5 billion in any recent fiscal year, and with “rapidly building fiscal pressures in our government, this unrealistic budget planning exacerbates the challenges the Coast Guard programs face,” he said.
The service has experienced a number of program funding breaches because of this unrealistic planning and there will be more cost breaches if long-term planning remains “much higher than past appropriated or requested levels,” Hutton said.
Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.), chairman of the subcommittee, said in his prepared remarks that the Coast Guard’s National Security Cutter (NSC), which is being acquired to replace aging high-endurance cutters, is 38 percent over revised budget plans and two-years behind schedule.
“In addition, both vessels require substantial retrofits to meet expected service lives,” LoBiondo said. “That one’s really hard for me to understand and accept.”
So far, the Coast Guard has taken delivery of two NSCs of a planned eight-ship buy. The vessels are being built by Northrop Grumman [NOC]. The third and fourth vessels are under construction and Currier said that if Congress approves a continuing budget resolution for the remainder of FY ’11, which is expected to occur shortly, then the fifth ship should be under contract later this summer.
Hutton also discussed a new study that the Coast Guard expects to complete this summer that is looking at its fleet needs amid the changing fiscal environment. Phase two of the Fleet Mix Analysis appears to include unrealistic cost constraints, he said. At the upper end planning for the Coast Guard’s Deepwater program, spending is expected to average $1.7 billion annually, which is higher than the service’s entire acquisition program receives, Hutton said.
“More importantly, we understand that the Coast Guard does not plan to assess any fleet mixes smaller than the program of record, a step that would help them better prepare for and make any tradeoff decisions given our nation’s fiscally constrained environment,” he said.
Hutton credited the Coast Guard with acknowledging that it needs to establish priorities among major programs and make some tradeoffs here to better align future budgets based on historical experience. But, he said, “The key will be whether and how the Coast Guard makes such tradeoffs. This is a key moment in time and it’s important that the Coast Guard does not push tradeoff decisions to tomorrow.”
During the hearing, updates on some programs were also provided. Currier said that the operational test and evaluation for the HC-144A Maritime Patrol Aircraft is expected to be completed this summer with the Department of Homeland Security’s meeting in the fall to consider approving full-rate production. So far, 11 of the planned 36 aircraft have been delivered. The aircraft are built by the European Aeronautic Space and Defence Co. and the mission system pallets are supplied by Lockheed Martin [LMT].
Currier said that the Coast Guard has been conducting operational assessments with the aircraft since the first one was delivered and that so far it has shown to be effective. During one 14-hour flight, an HC-144A out of Air Station Miami helped interdict two drug smuggling vessels bound for the United States and conducted a search and rescue mission, he said. This is “something we never would have been able to do with our previous assets.”
Currier said he doesn’t expect any problems during OT&E due to the “scope” and “fidelity” of the operational assessments on the aircraft. During OT&E logistics, maintenance and other aspects of the HC-144A as a system will be tested, he said.
Currier also said that plans for two smaller boats that would operate from the NSC and other cutters are progressing. Testing of the smaller boat, which is seven-meters long, will conclude this summer with a contract expected late in FY ’11. The longer boat, 11-meters long, will undergo testing this fall.
Both boats will operate from stern launch ramps on the NSC. The Coast Guard had to scrap previous plans to acquire similar stern-launched small boats because they didn’t meet requirements.