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(interesting to note the US Coast Guard is getting 15 billion dollars U.S. - approx 22.5 billion Cdn - kinda makes ya want to think ...)
For the Coast Guard Fleet, A $15 Billion Upgrade
Agency's Profile, and Its Duties, Have Grown Since Sept. 11
By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 25, 2002; Page A03
PORTSMOUTH, Va. -- From shore, the Northland, a 250-foot Coast Guard cutter, glistens with a fresh paint job and trophy-stickers of marijuana leaves, showing off its record of large drug busts. It's what's inside that can leave the crew grumpy.
The fire control system that runs its 76mm gun, a Vietnam-era Navy hand-me-down, is broken again. Parts for the gyrocompass, which keeps the ship on course, are scarce and at risk of being cannibalized by other Coast Guard crews in need. But that doesn't even compare with the frustration of being outrun by "go-fasts" or drug traffickers.
"We can chase down a fishing boat, no problem," the ship's captain, Bret McGough, said.
His operations officer, Lt. Russell Dash, quickly chimes in: "That's the only thing we can chase down."
The public profile of the Coast Guard, whose traditional mission has been to patrol the coasts to stop illegal immigrants, drugs and other contraband, has been raised since Sept. 11. It now must also escort vessels into port, enforce safety zones around Navy ships, board commercial ships in search of chemical and biological weapons, and secure the nation's ports. It does this with some of the oldest ships on the seas.
The Coast Guard has complained for years of financial neglect from Congress. It's taken six years of planning, but today the Coast Guard is scheduled to award a contract worth $12 billion to $15 billion over 20 years to upgrade, and eventually replace, its 91 ships and 206 helicopters and airplanes. Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin Corp. is considered the favorite for getting the contract for implementing the program, known as Deepwater, over Science Applications International Corp. and Boeing Co., according to industry sources.
The Coast Guard, now part of the Department of Transportation, is scheduled to become part of the new Department of Homeland Security under the administration's proposal before Congress and that could raise its profile as well.
Since the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, the administration has worried that Osama bin Laden's terrorist network could strike again at sea. Coast Guard and Customs Service officials also have repeatedly worried that terrorists might hide a nuclear device or other weapon in one of the 5.7 million cargo containers that arrive in U.S. ports each year.
"The whole purpose is to push out our maritime borders, giving us more time to identify threats and more time to respond," President Bush told Coast Guardsmen, police officers and rescue workers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey yesterday. "The Coast Guard is also working on ways to better detect weapons of mass destruction."
Deepwater -- referring to operations 50 miles or more off the coast -- will be the largest increase in spending in the agency's history.
More functions will be automated, so the crew size, now averaging 170, can be smaller, agency officials said. Right now, when a helicopter lands on deck, about eight crewmen push it into place. Lowering a speedboat into the water takes two-thirds of the crew. The personnel requirements for both tasks will be cut significantly, if not eliminated, agency officials said.
For the Coast Guard Fleet, A $15 Billion Upgrade
Agency's Profile, and Its Duties, Have Grown Since Sept. 11
By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 25, 2002; Page A03
PORTSMOUTH, Va. -- From shore, the Northland, a 250-foot Coast Guard cutter, glistens with a fresh paint job and trophy-stickers of marijuana leaves, showing off its record of large drug busts. It's what's inside that can leave the crew grumpy.
The fire control system that runs its 76mm gun, a Vietnam-era Navy hand-me-down, is broken again. Parts for the gyrocompass, which keeps the ship on course, are scarce and at risk of being cannibalized by other Coast Guard crews in need. But that doesn't even compare with the frustration of being outrun by "go-fasts" or drug traffickers.
"We can chase down a fishing boat, no problem," the ship's captain, Bret McGough, said.
His operations officer, Lt. Russell Dash, quickly chimes in: "That's the only thing we can chase down."
The public profile of the Coast Guard, whose traditional mission has been to patrol the coasts to stop illegal immigrants, drugs and other contraband, has been raised since Sept. 11. It now must also escort vessels into port, enforce safety zones around Navy ships, board commercial ships in search of chemical and biological weapons, and secure the nation's ports. It does this with some of the oldest ships on the seas.
The Coast Guard has complained for years of financial neglect from Congress. It's taken six years of planning, but today the Coast Guard is scheduled to award a contract worth $12 billion to $15 billion over 20 years to upgrade, and eventually replace, its 91 ships and 206 helicopters and airplanes. Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin Corp. is considered the favorite for getting the contract for implementing the program, known as Deepwater, over Science Applications International Corp. and Boeing Co., according to industry sources.
The Coast Guard, now part of the Department of Transportation, is scheduled to become part of the new Department of Homeland Security under the administration's proposal before Congress and that could raise its profile as well.
Since the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, the administration has worried that Osama bin Laden's terrorist network could strike again at sea. Coast Guard and Customs Service officials also have repeatedly worried that terrorists might hide a nuclear device or other weapon in one of the 5.7 million cargo containers that arrive in U.S. ports each year.
"The whole purpose is to push out our maritime borders, giving us more time to identify threats and more time to respond," President Bush told Coast Guardsmen, police officers and rescue workers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey yesterday. "The Coast Guard is also working on ways to better detect weapons of mass destruction."
Deepwater -- referring to operations 50 miles or more off the coast -- will be the largest increase in spending in the agency's history.
More functions will be automated, so the crew size, now averaging 170, can be smaller, agency officials said. Right now, when a helicopter lands on deck, about eight crewmen push it into place. Lowering a speedboat into the water takes two-thirds of the crew. The personnel requirements for both tasks will be cut significantly, if not eliminated, agency officials said.
