LoBiondo: The Coast Guards Acquisition Programs are Over Budget and Behind Schedule
Washington, DC – The Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, chaired by U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), today conducted a hearing to examine the status of the Coast Guard’s major acquisition programs. The Subcommittee received testimony from the U.S. Coast Guard and the Government Accountability Office on the Service’s management of its acquisition portfolio.
Coast Guard acquisitions have suffered from delays, cost overruns and failures of certain new equipment at the design or prototype phase. In 2002, the Service began the Integrated Deepwater System, which was meant to provide an update of their larger assets over a period of 20 years; however, the program has faced many challenges that have significantly increased costs, delayed schedules, and sacrificed planned capability improvements in assets delivered to date.
“Using the Coast Guard 2007 rebaseline as a guide, of the Coast Guard’s 17 large acquisition programs 10 are over budget, eight are behind schedule, and six are both over budget and behind schedule. If we used the original Deepwater baseline as a guide, nearly all of these programs would be over budget and behind schedule,” LoBiondo said.
“Although there has been some added capability with the few recapitalized assets delivered to date, the fact remains, we are not where we should be,” said LoBiondo. “The program remains significantly over budget and several years behind schedule. In addition, serious questions remain about whether the assets being delivered meet expected capabilities.
“One of the many examples of these problems is the National Security Cutter,” LoBiondo continued. “To date, the Service has taken delivery of two NSCs. Both vessels represent tremendous improvements over the 45 year old vessels they are replacing. However, the program is currently two years behind schedule and 38 percent over the revised 2007 budget. In addition, both vessels will require substantial retrofits to meet expected service lives.
“Delays in the Coast Guard’s recapitalization program have placed significant strains on legacy assets. The continued reliance on these assets, which have surpassed their planned service lives and are failing at increasing rates, has undermined mission readiness and performance,” LoBiondo explained. “The Service estimates a 23,000 mission hour gap in the major cutter fleet and a 103,000 mission hour gap in the patrol boat fleet. Furthermore, the cost to maintain legacy assets continues to grow at the expense of investment in new assets in what Admiral Allen used to call a ‘death spiral’.”
The Government Accountability Office provided testimony based on a report that was recently released on Coast Guard acquisition management for major acquisition programs. They determined that the majority of the Service’s 17 major acquisition programs continue to face execution challenges, and the unrealistic budget planning is largely to blame.
The Coast Guard is responsible for a broad array of missions that it is struggling to perform due to the failures of its acquisition programs. As a result of Deepwater’s failures, the Service has reformed the acquisitions management process, stood up an in-house acquisitions workforce, terminated their contract in 2007 with the private contractor that managed the program, and discontinued the use of the term ‘Deepwater,’ referring to the program from that point on as ‘major systems acquisition.’ Despite these changes, more must be done in order to develop reliable and affordable long-term plans for updating vessels, aircraft and command and control systems.
“I was here ten years ago, and I know what we were promised, and this is not it,” LoBiondo continued. “The Coast Guard has made great strides to turn the program around in recent years and I commend them for that. But now it is time to deliver results for the taxpayer and for the men and women of the Coast Guard who desperately need these assets to successfully conduct their missions.”