UNITED STATES COAST GUARD ORGANIZATION AND MISSIONS

In the five years since terrorists struck the United States, the Coast Guard has grown from a force of 35,000 to 39,806. It has added units and expanded mission hours by 55 percent. Its budget has increased 70 percent, from $4.6 billion in fiscal 2001 to $7.8 billion in fiscal 2007. It has broadened its global reach, deploying vessels to new regions, including China and the Middle East, and embarked on an ambitious recapitalization plan, known as the Integrated Deepwater Program.

In the wake of 9/11, the Coast Guard was transferred from the Department of Transportation to the Department of Homeland Security, joining 21 other agencies to join forces in new activities, enhance bureaucratic cooperation and further national security interests.

The changes, however, are less a transformation than they are an evolution — the Coast Guard historically has been a multifaceted organization with missions including maritime safety, national defense, maritime security and law enforcement, marine safety and mobility and environmental protection, and those missions remain the same. Yet the service’s obligations have increased vastly, for example, nearly doubling the operational hours spent on national defense and maritime security missions since 2001.

The Coast Guard is the only military service operating under the Department of Homeland Security. It falls under Title 14, U.S. Code, which established the service on Jan. 28, 1915, as a member of the armed forces and a military service and gives it law enforcement authority on the high seas and in U.S. waters. It also operates under Title 10, U.S. Code, as a military service that provides personnel to naval vessels for law enforcement purposes and other assignments. In addition to its active-duty force of nearly 40,000, it maintains a reserve of 7,833 members and an auxiliary — all volunteer — of 30,000 members. It also has a civilian work force of nearly 6,000 personnel.

Because the Coast Guard has a unique standing as both an armed service and law enforcement agency, its members’ presence is warranted aboard Navy vessels, where they can seize contraband and make arrests of foreign nationals on the high seas. The service’s units also have been in demand to provide security at high-visibility events within the United States, especially those taking place in coastal cities.

The Coast Guard has provided enforcement personnel to protect the G-8 Summit in Sea Island, Ga., political conventions in New York City and Boston and President Ronald Reagan’s burial in California. In 2006, it was charged with providing low-level air protection over Washington, D.C., a duty previously overseen by Customs and Border Patrol. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff assigned the mission to the Coast Guard since, as a military service, it falls under the chain of command responsible for protecting the nation’s airspace: Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

Since 9/11, the service has witnessed a broadening of its regulatory role. In November 2002, Congress passed the Maritime Transportation and Security Act — legislation designed to increase port and waterways security by raising standards for physical security and human resources at U.S. ports. The act empowered the service to set standards, verify compliance, monitor the ports and take punitive action against violators.

To adjust to its expanded mission set, the Coast Guard has embarked on increased cooperation with the U.S. Navy and other agencies. The service has collaborated with the Navy under various memoranda of agreement for more than two decades. In March 2006, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Mullen and then-Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thomas Collins signed a National Fleet Policy Agreement pledging integration of the services’ capabilities and synchronizing research and development, planning, procurement, development, doctrine, training and execution.

Both Navy and Coast Guard leadership have called an improved relationship between the services critical when it comes to securing the maritime domain.

“We must do more; the stakes are too high,” Mullen said at a symposium in January 2006.

The services decided to dual-hat fleet commanders as Global Joint Force Maritime Component Commanders, who would coordinate the plans of the combatant commanders. And they have agreed to forge standardized, fully networked maritime operations centers to integrate maritime domain awareness and joint maritime operations.

In addition to increased relations with the Navy, the Coast Guard has furthered relations with fellow Homeland Security agencies. It became a member of the national intelligence community in December 2001, and has greatly expanded its intelligence gathering and analysis capabilities, providing information to other Homeland Security agencies and the community as a whole.

In the arena of port and border security, it has worked closely with Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI to support the establishment of joint operations centers for maritime and cargo security, and to coordinate migrant interdiction operations.

And it has enhanced its operations with the FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to bolster counter-narcotics capabilities. The effectiveness of such cooperation was demonstrated Aug. 14, 2006, when the Coast Guard, working with the DEA, captured alleged drug lord Javier Arellano-Felix, a Tijuana, Mexico, resident whose cartel reportedly conspired to ship multi-ton loads of cocaine.

In the past year, the Coast Guard has streamlined its headquarters organizational chart, divvying offices into three Headquarters Commands that answer directly to the commandant. The three are Response, Policy and Planning and Prevention. Each is headed by an assistant commandant, usually a two-star admiral.

The service made the changes to flatten its headquarters command structure, creating clearer chains of command. The realignment was also intended to manage resources better and improve service for the operational commands.

As the Coast Guard Headquarters reorganized, the service also continued efforts to consolidate its field offices, bringing together operational units and marine safety offices into large units called sectors. This process, started in 2004, is part of the service’s effort to provide one commander per sector who is responsive to marine safety and operational demands.

In March 2006, the Coast Guard published Maritime Sentinel, outlining its efforts to fight maritime terrorism through port, waterway and coastal security as well as extended offshore security operations. The plan includes the service’s assessment of the threat, its strategy for dealing with the threat, course of action for implementing the plan and measures for assessing performance in the absence of a real-world test.

The Coast Guard has toiled in the past year to revise and rethink its recapitalization plan known as Deepwater. The contract, awarded in 2002 to Integrated Coast Guard Systems, a partnership between Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, originally was an estimated $17 billion, 20-year contract to replace the service’s aging ships, aircraft and technology. After 9/11, however, the service’s requirements changed.

That, factored in with several contract delays and cost overruns, prompted the service to revamp its plan. In 2005, it presented to Congress a $24 billion plan that is scheduled to last up to 25 years.

Deepwater would give the Coast Guard eight 378-foot national security cutters, 25 282-foot offshore patrol cutters, 58 270-foot fast response cutters, 33 long-range interceptor vessels, 91 short-range prosecutor boats, six HC-130J and 16 HC-130H surveillance aircraft, 36 maritime patrol aircraft, 42 rebuilt HH-60 medium-range helicopters, 95 rebuilt HH-65 multimission helicopters, 45 Eagle Eye vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aerial vehicles and four high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles.

The first national security cutter is expected to be delivered in 2007, as is the first maritime patrol aircraft. Under Deepwater, the service has launched eight 123-foot patrol boats, fielded numerous rebuilt HH-65C helicopters and equipped its medium-endurance cutters with new communications technology.

Legacy

The Coast Guard’s predecessor, the Revenue Cutter Service, was founded in 1790, charged with collecting tariffs and enforcing regulations regarding the importation of goods. The Revenue Cutter Service was combined with the U.S. Lifesaving Service in 1915, creating the Coast Guard.

The U.S. Lighthouse Service and Navigation and Steamboat Inspection Service would merge with the Coast Guard later, adding to its mission set. Under Title XIV, U.S. Code, the Coast Guard operates under the Navy during times of war as directed by the president. The Magnuson Act of 1950 solidified the Coast Guard’s responsibilities for the security of U.S. ports and harbors.

Commandant

Adm. Thad W. Allen is the 23rd commandant of the Coast Guard, having been named to the post in early 2006. He previously served as the Coast Guard’s chief of staff — a role in which he spearheaded the service’s transition to the Department of Homeland Security and led the federal response to Hurricane Katrina following the ouster of Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown as principal federal officer.

Since taking command, Allen has initiated a top-down review of the service and embarked on drafting and issuing a Coast Guard maritime strategy — what he calls a “capstone document” — that dictates how the service supports the national strategy for maritime security, published by the White House in September 2005. To create this strategy, Allen has ordered his senior leaders to bring together resource plans, logistics, command and control and mission support plans and form a cohesive, comprehensive maritime strategy.

At the same time, Allen is reconfiguring the command structure of the Coast Guard’s deployable small-unit combat and emergency response teams. He plans to bring together port security units, maritime safety and security teams, oil and hazardous materials teams and tactical helicopter squadrons under one command, the Deployable Operations Group, forming the third prong of a Coast Guard operational trident — shore-based operations, deepwater assets and deployable units.

According to a statement issued by Allen on his first day as commandant, his leadership focus is to ensure that the entire service is geared toward improving and sustaining its many missions. He promised service members that he would guarantee professionalism and efficiency in management and expects the same of its personnel.

“Expectations for our performance and contributions in routine and crisis operations are greater than ever. Meeting new demands while sustaining the trust and confidence of the public we serve requires us to continually challenge ourselves and improve the way we do business,” Allen said in a Coast Guard-wide message sent May 25, 2006.

Regarding the agencies with which the Coast Guard works, Allen has pledged to further the service’s relationship with the Navy to meet the needs for a national fleet and in terms of operations, including counternarcotics, illegal immigration, intelligence gathering and maritime security duties.

Organization, Missions and Capabilities

The Coast Guard is headquartered in Washington, D.C. Coast Guard Headquarters is the administrative control center for the service, managing logistics, support, intelligence, acquisition, and research and development.

The commandant is the senior official at headquarters; he is supported by a vice commandant and a chief of staff. The command staff oversees several directorates: including human resources; intelligence and criminal investigation; engineering and logistics; command, control, communications and information technology; and planning, resources and procurement. Other directorates include governmental and public affairs; prevention; policy and planning; acquisition; Judge Advocate General and Chief Counsel; response; and Deepwater program executive officer.

The Coast Guard operates 224 stations and command centers in the United States and its dependencies, in places such as Puerto Rico, Guam and the Far East. Operations are overseen by two commands — Atlantic Area and Pacific Area, each of which is commanded by a vice admiral.

Coast Guard operational units belong to districts. There are nine Coast Guard districts, each commanded by a rear admiral. District commanders answer directly to the area commanders. They also work closely with first responders, local governments and area law enforcement personnel to ensure communication and cooperation on a range of subjects and emergency response plans. The areas and, subsequently, the districts, are supported by maintenance and logistics commands.

Districts are made of sectors, combined commands that meld a region’s air, marine safety and boat forces. Some parts of the country have separate Coast Guard groups that oversee small boat forces and air stations. These units, and the sectors, report directly to district offices.

The Coast Guard has five primary missions: national defense, maritime safety, maritime security, maritime mobility and marine environmental protection.

National Defense

The Coast Guard deploys service members frequently in support of defense operations worldwide. At the height of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Coast Guard deployed 1,250 members in-theater, including nearly 500 reserve members. The service sent two high-endurance cutters, a buoy tender, eight patrol boats, four port-security units, a harbor defense command unit, pollution responders, law enforcement detachments and support staff to Central and European Command theaters of operations to support ongoing military operations.

The Coast Guard continues to contribute to the war effort and support defense exercises and operations worldwide. In 2006, the service still had four patrol boats in the Persian Gulf conducting maritime intercept operations and security duties and it maintains a contingent of personnel for law enforcement, port security, inspections and management.

The Coast Guard cutter Sherman spent five months in the Far East in 2006, participating in a Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training exercise and military exercises with the services of Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines. In June 2006, a Coast Guard reserve port security unit deployed for six months to provide security at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in September, the Coast Guard cutter Midgett deployed with the Expeditionary Strike Group Five to the Western Pacific.

The Coast Guard’s role in national defense is to provide personnel for maritime intercept operations, security and port defense operations, peacekeeping and environmental protection operations.

Maritime Safety

The Coast Guard’s search-and-rescue role remains its most visible mission, and during an average year the service rescues more than 5,000 people from U.S. and international waters. The service’s motto is Semper Paratus (Always Ready) and in 2004, Coast Guardsmen responded to 32,511 calls for assistance, saving 6,530 lives. In 2005, the service set a record for rescues: it is credited with saving more than 35,000 people along the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The service’s maritime safety mission also encompasses marine and boating safety and ice patrols. The service is responsible for setting rules and standards for safe boating and maritime commerce, transportation and navigation. The Coast Guard manages a marine safety program that oversees regulation and inspection of boaters and merchant vessels, including the licensing of masters and crews.

The Coast Guard Auxiliary, a force of 30,000 volunteers, supports the service greatly in this mission, running boating safety courses, marine examinations for recreational boaters, reporting the condition of aids to navigation and supporting the inspection of commercial facilities.

Homeland and Maritime Security

Before 9/11, the Coast Guard devoted 38 percent of its operating hours to homeland and maritime security missions. Today, it spends 61 percent of its operational hours on these missions, according to the Government Accountability Office.

The Coast Guard is responsible for securing the nation’s ports and maritime borders — 361 ports and 95,000 miles of coastline and navigable waterways. It also is charged with enforcing federal laws and laws of the sea, including narcotics enforcement, migrant interdiction, vessel safety regulations and fisheries conservation laws.

The service captured 223,109 pounds of cocaine in 58 operations, arresting 127 alleged smugglers in fiscal year 2006. And from October 2005-July 2006, it intercepted nearly 6,800 migrants from Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico and the People’s Republic of China.

Maritime Mobility

With 13 million American citizens employed in domestic shipping-related activities and the country’s marine transportation system contributing $740 billion to America’s economy, the Coast Guard must ensure the safety of that trade, overseeing ports and maintaining navigable waterways and harbors. Critical to marine traffic, the service’s aids to navigation program and vessel traffic services guide the safe movement of all vessels.

Each year, more than 8,000 foreign-flag vessels call at U.S. ports. Twenty-five percent of U.S. domestic trade is moved by water and more than 134 million passengers transit U.S. waters on ferries, cruise ships and floating casinos. There also are more than 16 million recreational watercraft in the United States.

Coast Guard officials believe that in the next 25 years, greater numbers of ultra-large, deep-draft ships and mammoth cruise ships, carrying 6,000 or more people, will be on the water. The projected increase demands continued effective control over the ship traffic.

In 2002, more than 150 countries agreed to develop a strategy for increasing the security of the maritime transportation system, and on July 1, 2004, these requirements took effect. The International Ship and Port Facility Security Code requires vessels and port facilities to conduct security assessments, develop security plans and hire security officers.

Through the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002, U.S. vessels and port facilities also are required to implement security plans. Implementation of the act is overseen by the Coast Guard.

Marine Environmental Protection

The Coast Guard protects the nation’s natural marine resources and is responsible for overseeing response to incidents of maritime pollution. It enforces fisheries and poaching laws and oversees maritime pollution cleanup. The Coast Guard maintains a 200-member national strike force trained in chemical, biological and hazardous material cleanup and investigation. Its marine safety offices maintain assets to respond to oil and hazardous material spills in waterways and they investigate such events to determine who is responsible.

The Coast Guard also is charged with ensuring that the nation’s 110,000 commercial fishing vessels abide by U.S. regulations and it enforces national and international fishing regulations. The service anticipates that as the world’s fish stocks decline, its role in fisheries law enforcement will grow, placing more responsibility on the service as an international peacekeeper and enforcer.