Added Capacity, New Capabilities, and "More in the Pipeline"

Adm. Thomas H. Collins became commandant of the Coast Guard in May 2002, when the service was assuming new duties at a rapid pace. The Coast Guard's senior leadership was preparing to implement the Deepwater program, a long-range project to replace the Coast Guard's aging fleet of cutters, aircraft, and sensor systems. In addition, Collins and others had to manage the seamless transition of the Coast Guard into the new Department of Homeland Security.

A 1968 graduate of the Coast Guard Academy, Collins is uniquely qualified for his current post. As vice commandant from 2000 to 2002, he created the Coast Guard's Innovation Council and spearheaded a number of process-improvement initiatives. In an earlier tour as chief of the Office of Acquisition, he managed the acquisition and fielding of 12 major systems and laid the foundation for Deepwater, the largest acquisition and modernization program in the service's history. He also has served as chief of the Coast Guard's Programs Division; as commander, Pacific Area; and as commander, Fourteenth Coast Guard District. He was interviewed for this issue of Sea Power by Senior Writer & Editor Emeritus James D. Hessman.

Sea Power: The Coast Guard received significant increases in funding the last two years. How much additional is requested for FY 2004, and will it be enough to meet your new and expanded missions?

Collins: We have a 10 percent increase in funding and 2,000 more people requested for fiscal 2004. Add that to the [fiscal] 2002 and 2003 increases and it brings us in three years to a net growth of 30 percent in funding and more than 4,000 additional people. That's pretty significant. In our history it's unprecedented. We're in the business of building up our capacity and our capabilities to do three things: One, build up our readiness for the homeland security mission; two, so we have a sufficient resource base to devote to our other missions; and the third is to modernize our force structure.

The '05 budget is being worked up now. So we'll see if that growth continues. Clearly, we have a lot of pressure to do everything [in] an optimal way. We frequently have to shift resources from one mission to another, and we clearly can't do all missions full up simultaneously. The policy question is how many of those missions can we do concurrently and do them well.

If Congress gives you higher funding than the president requested, what would be your highest priorities?

Collins: Right up front, Deepwater, the Integrated Deepwater System--modernizing our fleets of aircraft and ships and all the associated sensors--is one of our highest-priority items. That's how we responded to the questions from Congress, in the context of improving homeland security, of perhaps accelerating Deepwater.

We also want to resource our ability to implement and oversee the new regulations in ship and port security that will be put into effect, as required by the Maritime Transportation Security Act. We promulgated the interim final rule [on the regulations] on 1 July. There will be a 30-day comment period, with the final regulations promulgated on the first of November to go into effect on 1 July 2004. That's a very substantial piece of regulation that requires us to review over 10,000 vessel security plans and 5,000 security clearances, then oversee the new security regime that follows. Having the oversight resources in personnel is therefore another high priority.

These [new regulations] dovetail with new security rules approved by the IMO [International Maritime Organization]--is that correct?

Collins: Yes. The IMO passed rules with similar terms and conditions that require each vessel to do its own security assessment and be certified by the flag state [of the ship registered] that verifies that they have an effective security regime on board. So in order to come into our country, it [the ship] has to have a security certificate.

The [ship] classification societies are going to have to extend their reviews to include security audits as well as safety audits, so they'll be serving in a third-party contractor role, if you will, for the flag states. The shipping and classification societies around the world are now positioning themselves to scrutinize and audit the security plans for the flag states. The flag states are responsible for the security certifications, but many of the smaller countries might hire outside organizations to ensure that their ships meet the security rules.

Will the crew members of incoming ships be required to carry biometric ID cards similar to those that will be required for tourists and other legal migrants?

Collins: I'm glad you asked that. Because the International Labor Organization [ILO] conference just addressed this issue--seafarer credentials. The Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 required us to negotiate an international protocol on seafarer credentialing. The [ILO] conference reported out a requirement for an agreement [on IDs] that would include biometrics and other information, the details of which will be worked up.

So that's a plus. Hopefully, we will have, within a year or two, a common seafarers credentialing system with common databases and so forth. The question is whether this would replace the [current] visa requirement. That's not likely, because both Customs and the Department of State feel strongly about the visa requirement. Which means it's likely that people will need both the credentials and a visa to get into the country and go ashore.

But what sanctions ...

Collins: Clearly, we can detain the vessel, require the people who don't have the right credentials to stay aboard, and, working with the INS [Immigration and Naturalization Service] or Border Patrol, keep those people on board. So there are sanctions in effect right now.

The increases in Coast Guard end strength you previously mentioned do not immediately translate into experienced manpower. How will you manage in the interim?

Collins: We're making some progress in that regard. The people added in '02 and '03 are starting to come on board. We have formed four--of an eventual 12--new maritime safety and security teams. These are 100-person teams. They will be used to provide force protection and port security around the nation. They also are deployable.

That's a big increase in capacity. We will have six teams operational by the end of the summer and in early fall. In the '04 budget, we have another six teams. So that's 1,200 additional folks providing more port security capacity--and more Sea Marshals capacity--by going aboard ships and taking charge of the bridge.

We're making progress. Part of the challenge is the experience level. While you grow and get more people, the average time in service goes down. We're putting the people through the proper training regime and even have a canine unit trained to search for drugs and other illegal [contraband]. We trained the first team down at Auburn University--the first dogs and the first enlisted people graduated as members of that team. Some 23 of our people also went through the Navy's underwater training program. So the story is we understand what capacity we need and what capabilities, and we're building them up just as fast as the budget will allow.

Another thing is that, in addition to getting new units, new people, and new equipment, we're also getting new boats--we just awarded a $145 million contract for 700 new maritime security boats. Another thing we're using creatively is our Coast Guard Reserve force. At the height of Operation Iraqi Freedom, we had over 4,500 Reservists mobilized. That's over 50 percent of our total Reserve force. They're providing maritime security in our ports, force protection and so forth, and manning the four port security units we have in the Mediterranean. They have been tremendously effective in helping us meet the surge requirement.

The [Coast Guard] Auxiliary as well--they have been incredibly supportive in stepping in and doing many of the non-law-enforcement activities. Their water operations have increased, their work in our safety offices, their administrative help. They become eyes and ears on the waterfront for us. And they have an air arm. They have been contributing almost across the board.

What missions have had to be throttled back to provide more people for maritime security and the Sea Marshals mission?

Collins: That's one of the favorite questions I always get asked on Capitol Hill. People get concerned about the number of ship and aircraft hours [taken away from] environmental protection. Any time there's a Code Orange and we need to focus more on port security, we have to drop something from other missions. During Iraqi Freedom we had to cut back on fisheries enforcement and counterdrug operations. That's where we had to take the ship and aircraft hours from.

But this is not a static thing. It's very dynamic. It's a mix-and-match thing. What we try to do is use the force structure we do have for the highest-risk, highest-demand mission at the time.

Actually, that is really a strength of our organization. We describe ourselves as military, maritime, and multimission. The multimission part means that most of our platforms, the surface assets and the air assets, are multimission; they're not single-purpose. On 9/10/01, for example, we had about 1.5 percent of our budget allocated to port security. Immediately after 11 September, we increased that to 50 percent. We turned that mission around overnight. Why? Because these were multimission, multicapable, multitask units. This is an incredible strength and gives us a lot of adaptability.

If you think of the budget as a pie, the size of the pie has gotten bigger. The slice of the pie devoted to maritime security is now back to about 25 percent. But if you add [interdiction of] illegal migrants and illegal drugs, it's about 45 percent.

Even before 9/11 the Coast Guard was deploying more and more people overseas. The DHS [Department of Homeland Security] philosophy seems to be that maritime security starts overseas. Is that your view?

Collins: Yes. Even before we were in the Department of Homeland Security, we were developing a more forward maritime strategy, and part of it was the idea of a layered defense and pushing the borders out--which are fundamental principles of the strategy.

If you think of the border as a line and you wait for something to cross that line, that would be a very static strategy. In homeland security you don't want to find that "something" already in port. I would much rather find it much further out in the supply chain--and have the capacity to intervene all along the supply chain, whether it's the city of origin, or the factory, or the port of debarkation. That gives you a transparency of people, cargo, and vessels, all the way back to the point of origin.

This makes advance-notice-of-arrival information very, very important. It makes the work of our foreign port assessment teams, which validate the security of a foreign port, very, very important. It also makes Deepwater that much more important, because Deepwater will give us increased visibility along the whole chain--also the ability for offshore intervention, to inspect offshore, to scrutinize offshore, before a ship enters one of our ports.

If that foreign port is not adhering to these international [security] standards, we have the right to refuse entry.

The interdiction of drugs and illegal migrants--responsibilities shared in the past by the Customs Service, the Border Patrol, and, when the migrants come by sea, the Coast Guard--also has taken on higher priority in the post-9/11 era. How are these separate responsibilities being integrated under DHS?

Collins: All these things are linked. You're absolutely correct: Sometimes the people dealing in one illegal commodity are dealing in another the next day. The same distribution network that delivers illegal drugs one day could deliver weapons of mass destruction the next. Also, the cash generated by illegal drugs can be used to finance terrorism.

You were with President Bush in Port Elizabeth [N.J.] last year when he told the several hundred Coast Guard people present that his administration's goal is to "push out our maritime borders," to give us "more time to identify threats and ... to respond." To what degree has that goal been met, and what additional steps still have to be taken?

Collins: President Bush has been tremendously supportive. We've received a 30 percent increase [in funding]; that's phenomenal. He spoke at our [Coast Guard Academy] graduation and emphasized the importance of port and maritime security. I was in the Oval Office last year when he signed the Maritime Transportation Security Act. He's been very supportive of our rulemaking [effort], which received the fastest review on record in terms of the time it took to get through the White House. So whether it's been policy support, or budget support, or personal support, he's done all of those things, and more.

The net result is that we have more capacity now than before 9/11. We have more capability now, and more is in the pipeline. We have greater visibility of the threat. All of those are very positive things that we didn't have before 9/11. And now we have the major security agencies--most of them--under one roof in the Department of Homeland Security, which is another initiative pushed by President Bush. *