The Coast Guard: An Innovative Plan for Multimission Excellence

But Coast Guard's Personnel and Fleet Inventory Face Maximum Stress

By JAMES H. THACH III

JAMES H. THACH III is a retired aerospace program man-ager and past chairman of the Navy League's Coast Guard Active and Reserve Affairs Committee.

The United States Coast Guard was established in 1790 as the Revenue Marine with a single assigned mission--namely, the enforcement of U.S. customs and revenue laws. This simple directive to protect the seaborne commerce of the fledgling nation, and hence the revenues to the United States, soon expanded as the Congress authorized an increase in the strength of the Revenue Marine in 1797 to "defend the sea coast, and ... repel any hostility to [U.S.] vessels and commerce."

In the decades thereafter the Revenue Marine was charged with numerous additional responsibilities, including but not limited to the suppression of piracy, operating the nation's first lifesaving station (in Cohasset, Mass.), protecting the timber reserves in Florida, and enforcing the law in the newly acquired territory of Alaska.

The service's responsibilities were no longer simple and direct. New missions and responsibilities continued to be assigned, and by the beginning of the 20th century the Revenue Marine was responsible for an ever-increasing number of lifesaving stations in and around U.S. coastal waters, enforcing fishing laws in cooperation with the Bureau of Fisheries, policing the anchorage of vessels in larger ports around the United States, and providing special marine police services for regattas and marine parades.

The 20th century saw the addition of offshore seal patrols, the enforcement of motorboat regulations, the testing and certification of merchant seamen, enforcing oil-pollution laws in coastal waters, protecting the North Pacific halibut fishery, and maintaining the newly developed LORAN (long-range aids to navigation) system. Any resemblance to the original Revenue Marine was by then purely coincidental.

There were other changes, and an exponential increase in operational responsibilities. The U.S. Coast Guard was formally established under that name in 1915, and served in combat, under U.S. Navy jurisdiction, in World Wars I and II and in several other conflicts. The Coast Guard was a major participant in the International Ice Patrol, and was responsible for icebreaking in U.S. coastal waters and on the Great Lakes. The Coast Guard Auxiliary and Coast Guard Reserve were established, the former Lighthouse Service and Steamboat Inspection Bureau were absorbed into the Coast Guard during one of the service's several reorganizations, and joint operations with the Navy increased in both scope and frequency.

And, of course, the Coast Guard's responsibilities continued to expand. Among the more significant new duties assigned in recent years: Polar icebreaking to support new scientific research in the Arctic; a significant increase in operations to prevent the immigration of illegal aliens; an immense and continuing effort in the war against drugs; responsibility for the nation's major waterway bridges; expanded efforts in the prevention of maritime accidents; and additional duties in support of U.S. international programs--an ongoing effort that has required the overseas deployment of many of the Coast Guard's already scarce resources and people.

Today, although still very small in size, the Coast Guard faces a staggering array of responsibilities and mission requirements. It is no longer just the protector of the nation's customs laws.

The Responsibility Matrix

Coast Guard Commandant Adm. James M. Loy has defined the Coast Guard's responsibilities in terms of five strategic goals: Maritime Safety, Maritime Security, the Protection of Natural Resources, Maritime Mobility, and National Defense.

Maritime Safety--the protection of life and property on the high seas, primarily--is the mission for which the Coast Guard is most famous, and in recent years meant 3,800 lives saved in an average year and $2.5 billion in property also saved. In addition, the Coast Guard performs 141,000 recreational courtesy examinations annually, inspects over 50,000 merchant vessels, and responds to over 50,000 calls for assistance from mariners in distress. The American people read the accounts and see the blurred pictures on TV and in the newspapers of dramatic rescues in the worst possible conditions, and are justifiably proud of their Coast Guard. The helicopter crew recovering a family from a sinking vessel, the 47-foot motor lifeboat crew rescuing fishermen from their capsized boat in the Columbia River in impossible sea conditions. These are the images that most Americans remember.

With well over 75 million American boaters who own 17 million boats, and who spent over $23 billion last year in boating activities, the Coast Guard expenditure of less than $750 million in 2000 for all of its Maritime Safety activities may well be one of the most cost-effective insurance policies in the world.

Maritime Security can best be defined as the protection of the nation's maritime borders. Last year there were literally hundreds of drug-related murders in the United States and 50,000 citizens died because of drug abuse. It is estimated that Americans spent over $50 billion to purchase illegal drugs, and that the total loss to the U.S. economy was in excess of $550 billion. Almost all illegal drugs used in America are produced overseas and smuggled into the United States.

In addition, tens of thousands of illegal immigrants attempted to enter the United States by sea last year. How many succeeded will probably never be known.

Clearly, the need for expanded enforcement of laws and treaties has grown in recent years. The Coast Guard is now responsible for protecting over 3.3 million square miles of contiguous U.S. coastal waters. Despite its limited resources the Coast Guard last year prevented over 125,000 pounds of cocaine from entering this country, stopped 40,000 pounds of hashish, and interdicted over 4,500 illegal immigrants who were attempting to enter the United States. The Coast Guard's total operational expenditures for all of these law-enforcement responsibilities was only $778 million in 2000, less than one tenth of one percent of the economic loss caused by illegal drugs, another exceedingly cost-effective use of scarce federal dollars.

Protection of Natural Resources is another critical mission for the Coast Guard--and for the nation. The dramatic decrease in available fish stocks has become a global problem. The $25 billion U.S. fishing industry employs over 300,000 people either directly or in support functions. U.S. fishermen harvest over four million tons of protein annually to help feed an increasingly populous world.

Another "protection of natural resources" mission results from the harmful environmental impact of pollution spills. Today, Americans better understand the impact of pollution and consider preservation of the environment to be a national priority. Most people still do not realize the extent of the Coast Guard's responsibilities for protecting the maritime environment, however. With almost 26 percent of its 2000 operational budget expended for the protection of national resources, it is clear the Coast Guard is very deeply involved in this vital mission.

The Coast Guard responds to approximately 12,000 pollution incidents every year, and, to enforce fisheries laws, boards and inspects 14,000 vessels annually. In spite of this intense effort the number of fish species designated as "overfished" has continued to increase, so the Coast Guard's work in this area also is likely to expand.

Maritime Mobility: To keep ships and small craft of all types moving safely the Coast Guard maintains more than 50,000 federal aids to navigation ranging from lighthouses to fixed shore aids to floating aids and including the differential global positioning system now in service around the coastal United States. The Coast Guard operates Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) systems in many of the more crowded U.S. ports and channels to facilitate the safe passage of vessels in congested waterways. The Coast Guard possesses the nation's only significant icebreaking capabilities, and operates not only in the coastal waterways and Great Lakes but also in the Arctic and Antarctic. Because 95 percent of all imports to the United States come by ship, the economic importance of the Coast Guard's icebreaking services cannot be overemphasized.

The approximately $565 million in expenditures allocated to support maritime mobility in FY 2000 represents a statistically insignificant percentage of the estimated $1.7 trillion value of the maritime commerce protected, but consumes almost 19 percent of the Coast Guard's annual operating budget.

National Defense: The Coast Guard provides not only a significant low-end naval capability in time of war, but also several unique capabilities--in port security, maritime interception, military environmental response, and peacetime military engagement--that support U.S. political and diplomatic policies around the world. Only a minute $63 million was expended by the Coast Guard in 2000 for national defense, but the U.S. Navy knows it can call on every Coast Guard resource from the large 378-foot cutters to the 25-foot port security raider boats, and everything in between. In short, all of the Coast Guard's personnel and physical resources are ready to support national defense in time of need.

The Key Word: "Multimission"

How can the Coast Guard deliver such extraordinary value, across such a broad spectrum of missions, at such a reasonable cost? The answer lies in the unusual expertise that the Coast Guard has developed over the years, particularly the ability of Coast Guard personnel to expertly perform so many very different, and very difficult, tasks. Combined with the acquisition of capital equipment that can cost-effectively perform many different functions, that expertise translates into "value added" in numerous ways.

All Coast Guard personnel, from the commanding officer of the largest cutter to the newest recruit at a small boat station, train for and are called upon to perform the full spectrum of Coast Guard missions. As an example, a large buoy tender might be cleaning up a major oil spill on Monday and the next day be servicing aids to navigation--then be suddenly called away on a drug-interdiction mission. During the same week she might be helping a disabled fisherman, then be ordered to the scene of a major maritime disaster.

This is precisely what happened to the buoy tender USCGC Juniper, which--less than two weeks after she was commissioned--became the on-scene command ship and recovery vessel at the time of the TWA 800 tragedy. All of the missions enumerated were performed by one Coast Guard vessel and one Coast Guard crew, and with a degree of expertise that could not be duplicated by any other seagoing agency in the world.

Another example of the multimission functionality of the Coast Guard would be almost any small boat station around the United States. Although search and rescue (SAR) is what the stations are staffed for, SAR is only one of their varied responsibilities. They also are inspectors, not only of recreational craft but also of fishing vessels (and their catches). They also are maritime policemen, well-trained in law-enforcement theory and practice. Personnel at some boat stations must patrol armed, protected by flak jackets and ready to meet forceful resistance.

Some stations also have a K9 component, with drug-sniffing dogs that go to their day's work in small boats, working with their Coast Guard handlers to keep drugs from America's shores. Boat station personnel protect the maritime environment, working to prevent--and, when necessary, clean up--pollution spills. They are educators, teaching the fundamentals of safe boating to the boating public. They maintain the small buoy boats that repair and replace the smaller aids to navigation along America's shores and on U.S. rivers. And, of course, when someone calls for help, they are the voice on the other end of the radio. Every day, they put their own lives on the line to save others. One station, one crew, multiple responsibilities.

Such multifunction tasking is clearly very difficult--and requires endless training of the personnel involved and the acquisition of equipment with multiple capabilities--but is a hallmark of today's Coast Guard. From the perspective of government accountants, multimission taskings are very cost-effective, because they involve high utilization of expensive resources, both personnel and equipment, and therefore lower cost per activity.

The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 established a measurement system for all federal agencies; the Coast Guard consistently receives very high marks--the most recent report card gave the multimission service an "A" in every category except financial management, where the Coast Guard received a "B" (but has subsequently completed a property audit that should raise that grade to an "A" as well).

It should be noted that achievement of these grades has been very hard on the Coast Guard's people and equipment, requiring long working hours and a heavy maintenance burden.

The Dilemma of Success

Because of its numerous accomplishments, high grades, and public reputation, it might seem that the Coast Guard is in excellent shape. That is not the case. In fact, today's Coast Guard is in considerable trouble--not of its own making, though.

The Coast Guard's physical infrastructure and hardware inventory are rapidly wearing out. The Coast Guard's fleet of cutters is older than 39 of the world's 41 major naval fleets. Its largest cutters--the 378-foot high-endurance Hamilton-class WHECs--were built in the 1960s. They have no sonar, no air-search radar, very limited computer capability, no night-vision, no low light level TV, and no infrared search capability. They are effectively "Deaf, Dumb, Blind, and Hog-Tied" in today's high-technology maritime world. On drug-interdiction or similar missions they often cannot find their quarry, they cannot share current tactical data, and they may not be able to catch the enemy even if they do find them. The 378-foot cutters are powered by a combination of diesel and gas turbine engines, but the turbine engines are the same as those used on the old 707 jet transports, and at last count there were no spare engines to be found anywhere in the world. The last 378 to deploy overseas with the U.S. Navy was for that reason forced to make emergency repairs to its turbines when they quit while the cutter was still underway with the carrier task force. The crew met their obligations, but at a very high cost.

Perhaps optimistically, the Coast Guard gives the 378 class only three more years before they are totally obsolete. The truth is, though, that they became economically obsolete almost 10 years ago. It would have cost the United States less to have replaced them in the 1990s with ships of superior capability, fitted with more reliable systems, and with smaller crews.

Two of the Coast Guard's medium-endurance cutters are even more ancient; they were operational in World War II and should have been replaced 30 years ago.

In 1993 President Clinton called on all U.S. government offices and agencies to "reinvent" themselves into more efficient entities. The Coast Guard, under the guidance of then-Commandant Adm. Robert E. Kramek, dutifully undertook to "streamline" the Coast Guard and between 1994 and 1998 cut the active-duty force by 4,000 people.

Kramek also managed, despite increased mission requirements, to reduce the Coast Guard's operational budget by approximately $400 million.

The administration and Congress did not reward the Coast Guard, unfortunately, for its forward-looking actions by providing the recapitalization funds needed to complete the job. The predictable result was that the Coast Guard's infrastructure suffered. Maintenance of cutters, aircraft, and shore facilities was postponed. The training needed was not provided, and the new equipment even more urgently needed was not procured. The fleet inventory continued to age and the availability of other operational resources dropped. One result was that the readiness rate for 41-foot utility boats fell by 20 percent and the readiness rate for the old 44-foot motor surfboats dropped by 35 percent.

Recruiting and retention also suffered, creating significant gaps in critical-skill personnel such as aircraft pilots and VTS radar operators. The overall situation became so difficult that Loy, Kramek's successor, was forced to order a cutback in noncritical operations to help preserve aged equipment and also reduce the strain on the badly overworked Coast Guard work force.

All of these problems result from severe, and continued, underfunding. The Coast Guard's AC&I (acquisition, construction & improvements) budget serves as a prime example. AC&I money buys the Coast Guard's new or replacement equipment, and serves as a reliable measure of the service's reinvestment rate. Over the last 15 years the Coast Guard has received, in constant 2000 dollars, an average of $544 million for AC&I; that total includes supplemental authorizations. But the value of all Coast Guard assets is estimated to be $20 billion. This means that Congress and the executive branch have reinvested in the Coast Guard at a rate of only 2.7 percent. The commonly accepted minimum required to keep a commercial company functioning is a 5 percent reinvestment rate--almost twice what the Coast Guard has been allocated.

The Way Out

Recognizing the extreme problem it is facing, the Coast Guard has developed an innovative approach to upgrade its infrastructure while still carrying out its missions. The new "Deepwater" approach breaks new ground in government procurement. First, the Coast Guard did not specify in its Deepwater proposal the number of ships and aircraft needed and the required capabilities of each. Instead, it defined the missions that have to be carried out and asked the private sector to propose how those missions should be done: how many ships and aircraft are needed, what type of electronic and computer systems should be procured, and even how they should be operated.

Another important point: The Coast Guard did not call for a "lowest initial cost" approach--which in the past has led to the procurement of equipment that, while cheap to buy, was very expensive to own and operate, in terms both of dollars and people. Instead, the Coast Guard is seeking the lowest life-cycle costs.

Funding the Deepwater Project will not be inexpensive; estimates indicate a total program cost between $17 billion and $20 billion, spread over the next 20 years. From a national policy point of view, though, it seems absolutely mandatory to keep what is by any measurable standard the world's best Coast Guard functioning with the capabilities and at the operational levels that will be required to meet the challenges looming just over the horizon.

The only question to be answered, therefore, is this: Will the next administration and the new Congress have the good sense, and the foresight, needed to keep the Coast Guard Semper Paratus (Always Ready) for the foreseeable future? *

How Safe Are U.S. Ports?

Maritime security is the umbrella term used to describe matters related to the speedy and safe transportation of goods and services to and through U.S. ports. After the bombing of the USS Cole, the American public started to ask: "Could this happen here?"

The short answer is "Yes." However, several recent efforts by the Coast Guard and other federal, state, and local agencies--as well as the private sector--have focused on the vulnerability of U.S. ports and waterways.

On 13 November 1998, recognizing both the continuing importance and the vulnerability of the U.S. Marine Transportation System, Congress directed the Secretary of Transportation, through the Coast Guard and in consultation with other federal agencies, to establish a task force to assess the adequacy of the nation's ports, waterways, and their intermodal connections, to operate in a safe, efficient, and environmentally sound manner.

In September 1999, the task force issued its findings and recommendations in a report to Congress, An Assessment of the U. S. Marine Transportation System. Maritime security is one of five key areas addressed in the report; the issues pertaining to the Maritime Transportation System include the need to support national security programs in general, various ways of keeping the flow of waterborne traffic moving, and initiatives to safeguard the nation's ports and waterways.

The Hart-Rudman Commission, which was concurrently tasked with reviewing the overall U.S. national security situation, set two simple goals in a report issued at the end of the first phase of its ongoing work: first, to sustain U.S. economic prosperity; second, to ensure the security of the U.S. homeland.

Inherent in those goals is a paradox of major concern to political leaders and maritime security planners alike. Sustaining prosperity requires greater openness and more freedom of movement. On the other hand, ensuring homeland security implies a need to tighten down the national borders. Finding an appropriate balance that enhances prosperity and improves security at the same time is a tall order indeed, as Coast Guard Commandant Adm. James M. Loy frequently points out.

The Coast Guard is doing its part to develop solutions. On 21 October 2000, the Coast Guard Academy hosted an interactive workshop on Homeland Security: The Maritime Achilles Heel that highlighted potential threats to the U.S. marine infrastructure and encouraged participants to craft innovative ways to prevent and respond to asymmetric attacks on U.S. ports. Navy League National President John R. Fisher, one of the participants, said the workshop "gave us a clear picture of the threats and very complex problems with which the Coast Guard and others are coping every day."

How to prevent threats to the U.S. port system is an issue that will continue to foster debate, and another mission that probably will require the assignment of additional Coast Guard personnel and physical assets. *