GAO: USCG Faces Deferred Maintenance, Obsolete Cutters and Staff Shortage
The U.S. Coast Guard is facing increasing challenges in maintaining and operating its cutter fleet, writes the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in a new report to Congress. It cites a lack of data and tracking contributing to issues in maintenance, a lack of spare parts, and personnel shortages.
The GAO reports that more cutters “are operating in a degraded state and at an increased risk of further maintenance issues,” in a report that looks at the issues in the cutter fleet since 2012. Further, it cites the impacts of personnel shortages, which it says are a “major challenge” to both operating and maintaining the cutter fleet, as well as “cutters often deployed without a full crew.” It reports that the USCG has been forced to cannibalize cutters to keep vessels in operation.
The report was prepared for the House of Representatives’ Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and focuses specifically on the 241 vessels in the cutter fleet, which are 65 feet or greater in length. The GAO was asked to review how the cutter fleet has changed since 2012, when it last analyzed the fleet. At the time, the GAO reported the USCG’s legacy cutters were approaching, or had exceeded, their expected service lives and were generally in poor physical condition.
“Since fiscal year 2019, the cutter fleet’s availability to conduct missions generally declined due, in part, to increasing equipment failures. Across the cutter fleet, the number of instances of serious cutter maintenance issues increased by 21 percent from 3,134 in fiscal year 2018 to 3,782 in fiscal year 2023,” concludes the GAO.
It points to deferred maintenance and delays in obtaining obsolete parts as contributing to the decline in the cutter fleet. It reports that last fiscal year the USCG deferred $179 million in cutter maintenance, almost nine times the amount deferred in 2019.
GAO recommends that the USCG needs better systems to collect and assess data on the impact of deferred maintenance on cutter equipment failures and which systems will become obsolete. USCG accepted these four recommendations.
The report, however, also says the USCG has not fully addressed the impact of personnel shortages, which the GAO believes are a major challenge to maintaining and operating the cutters. It writes that the USCG’s vacancy rate has risen from about 5 percent in 2017 to 13 percent in the last fiscal year. As a result, it says workloads have increased to meet mission demands and cutters often deploy without a full crew.
The USCG did not accept a recommendation about improving data and tracking staff availability for the cutter workforce. GAO writes that it continues to believe this data would help inform personnel assignments.
It is not the first time GAO has been critical of the USCG. It cited many issues in the cutter replacement programs and the efforts to build the new generation of polar security cutters.
The Trump administration has responded with plans for sweeping changes across the USCG. It replaced the USCG Commandant immediately after Donald Trump took office, and more recently, Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem outlined a plan for an overhaul called Force Design 2028. However, it has also canceled cutter construction programs and an investment in a new IT logistics system for the USCG.