Washington Report

Top Lawmakers Fashion A Fast Track for Deepwater

Key lawmakers in the House and Senate are preparing to use several legislative vehicles to add funding to rapidly accelerate the Integrated Deepwater System program, the Coast Guard’s $24 billion, 25-year effort to modernize existing cutters and purchase an array of new vessels, aircraft, and their associated intelligence and communications systems.

Deepwater supporters cite the agency’s effective and central role during the response to Hurricane Katrina. But they quickly add that the Coast Guard needs to upgrade its aging fleet of cutters and aircraft to respond to future natural disasters or terrorist attacks on U.S. shores. And despite a positive government report on Deepwater, there are lingering concerns in some Capitol Hill offices about the Coast Guard’s management of the huge program.

“I don’t want us to look back and wish we had anticipated that these assets were not up to the requirements for the challenge,” said New Jersey Republican Rep. Frank LoBiondo, who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation subcommittee.

Meanwhile, program supporters are buoyed by a recent report from government inspectors that concludes the Coast Guard has made significant progress in improving the management of Deepwater.

The Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative wing, has long been skeptical of the program, which the Coast Guard has altered dramatically since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But an April 28 report found that program managers have implemented many of the investigators recommendations, and appear to be on the right track.

With the Deepwater officials making continued progress, LoBiondo intends to insert language into the fiscal year 2007 Coast Guard authorization bill, which his subcommittee will consider in the next several weeks, to speed the effort along. His first goal is to make Deepwater a 20-year program, but he hopes to accelerate the effort even further.

“I think if we were able to some way turn it into a 15- or an 18-year program, we will save an enormous amount of money and we will be just light years ahead of where we are now for preparedness,” he said. The existing 25-year plan ends in 2027.

LoBiondo, who has unsuccessfully attempted to accelerate Deepwater in past years, said he is “optimistic” about his chances this year. However, he cautioned that members have varying priorities — all of which must be weighed in an austere federal budget environment.

In the Senate, the program has a staunch advocate in influential Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, who stressed that speeding up the program could save the federal government billions in the long run.

“I think there’s fierce support for the Coast Guard and accelerating Deepwater,” Collins said. However, pushing fielding dates forward would require a more weighty investment up front — a looming challenge in an era of belt tightening, she added.

Meanwhile, Del. Donna Christensen, D-Virgin Islands, successfully pushed an amendment through committee markup to the Safe Port Act that would increase 2007 Deepwater funding to almost $1.9 billion. The language, however, was scrubbed from the final bill amid concern that the Coast Guard could not spend the additional money if it was approved by Congress, Christensen said during floor debate. The Coast Guard’s 2007 request for Deepwater is $934.4 million.

Meanwhile, other appropriators in both chambers have been the most skeptical observers of the program, and have largely shied away from increasing the Coast Guard’s accounts for Deepwater.

Nonetheless, the Senate already has voted to beef up Deepwater spending by $600 million as part of its sprawling fiscal 2006 emergency supplemental spending package to pay for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and hurricane relief efforts. That would bring 2006 funding to $1.5 billion.

That money — and funding required in subsequent years — could accelerate the end date of the program to 2015, said New Hampshire Republican Sen. Judd Gregg, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Homeland Security subcommittee.

If the $600 million provision survives what is expected to be contentious House and Senate conference negotiations on the supplemental spending bill, Congress “will have made major strides forward to getting the Coast Guard upgraded,” Gregg said.

The conference talks, which began the second week in May, were not concluded before press time. But House appropriators and the Bush administration have voiced concerns about Senate efforts in recent weeks to add $14.5 billion to the president’s total supplemental budget request, making the Deepwater funding a potential target for reductions.

If the effort to boost 2006 funding fails to make it through the conference, appropriators’ next chance to boost funding for Deepwater could come as the House Appropriations Committee begins to consider fiscal 2007 spending bills.

Last year, House appropriators expressed concern that the Coast Guard did not provide Congress with adequately detailed program information. As a result, the Coast Guard submitted an omnibus report in February 2006 that followed two packages of additional information on its implementation plan in April and May 2005.

The House Appropriations Homeland Security subcommittee included $893 million for Deepwater in its May 11 markup, which is less than the Coast Guard’s request. However, that figure is likely to change during full committee review.

Coming Up: Grudge Match Over Sub Procurement

There may be a grudge match later this year between the House and Senate over how quickly to purchase Virginia-class submarines. It appears likely to come when the House and Senate Armed Services Committees head into conference negotiations on the fiscal 2007 defense authorization bill.

House Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., has agreed to a provision in his panel’s version of the bill that would direct the Navy to buy two submarines annually in 2009, three years earlier than planned.

The decision, which authorizes an additional $400 million for the submarine program, was a bow to Rep. Rob Simmons, a senior GOP member of the committee whose eastern Connecticut district includes General Dynamics’ Electric Boat business, which is bleeding jobs.

But the Navy has bristled at any efforts to buy two subs a year before 2012, arguing that doing so would surely put other areas of the sea service’s shipbuilding plans in jeopardy.

In a recent interview, Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner, R-Va., appeared to back the Navy’s stance. Warner, a former Navy secretary, said he would prefer the service decide for itself how to carry out its shipbuilding plan.

Bartlett Would Curtail DD(X) to Two Ships

House Armed Services Projections Forces Subcommittee Chairman Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., would like the Navy to stop building DD(X) destroyers after the first two roll off assembly lines, curtailing the program to far less than the seven vessels the Navy plans.

Bartlett, whose subcommittee oversees many Navy programs, recently told reporters he views DD(X) as merely a technology demonstration platform for the CG(X) cruiser, which the Navy will not put in the water for another decade.

Congressional aides said the committee as a whole does not share Bartlett’s views on the destroyer. Indeed, DD(X) supporters, including Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., have boasted that the committee’s version of the defense authorization bill provides authority for the Navy to sign two contracts for two DD(X) destroyers, as planned.

The Navy will build DD(X) in Maine and Mississippi. The Navy recently announced that the first DD(X) destroyer will be designated DDG 1000.

Science Board Proposes An ‘Industrial BRAC’

The Pentagon’s senior analytical panel has proposed that top defense officials consider the feasibility of an “industrial BRAC” as a means to close under-utilized defense plants and share the savings with defense contractors.

In an April report, “Transformation: A Progress Assessment,” a study group of the Defense Science Board said recent shifts in Defense Department buying patterns have left the nation “with excess capacity” in segments of the defense industry such as aircraft production, shipbuilding and the manufacture of satellites.

“Because these facilities are largely ... sustained by DoD programs, the government is ultimately the bill-payer” for unneeded defense plants, the report states. Reducing capacity “offers sizable savings for the DoD in the long term.”

Thus, Pentagon officials, such as Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon R. England, should work with the Office of Management and Budget, Congress and industry associations to “create financial incentives” for the reduction of defense facilities, the report states. One recommended approach is to use the Pentagon’s Base Realignment and Closure Committee (BRAC) as a model.

The Defense Science Board warned that “strong analytical support” to demonstrate real savings “is key to gaining congressional support” for plant closures. The closures would include defense plants owned by contractors and by the Pentagon.

Marine Corps to Deactivate Two Tactical Air Squadrons

The Marine Corps will deactivate two fighter-attack aircraft squadrons in fiscal year 2007 due to inventory shortfalls in its fleet of F/A-18 Hornet strike fighters and the need to increase manpower in other aviation units, according to Capt. Jerome Bryant, Marine Corps spokesman.

Marine All-Weather Fighter-Attack Squadron 332 and reserve Marine Fighter-Attack Squadron 134 — which fly the two-seat F/A-18D and single-seat F/A-18A+, respectively — will be deactivated in order to “successfully sustain our high tempo in the global war on terror,” Bryant said.

A secondary objective, he said, is to ensure the long-term health of Marine aviation. The Marine Corps no longer has enough F/A-18Ds to fully equip its six all-weather fighter-attack squadrons with 12 aircraft each. Cutting one of the six squadrons will ensure that the remaining five will be fully equipped for operational requirements. The deactivation of the reserve fighter-attack squadron will leave the Marine Corps Reserve with only two similar reserve squadrons, down from four in 2004.

“The inventory shortfall will only get worse in the coming years until we begin transitioning our [fighter-attack squadrons] to the Joint Strike Fighter,” Bryant said.

USCG Moves Ahead On Vessel Tracking

The Coast Guard is making significant strides in cooperative efforts with international companies and organizations to monitor merchant vessels.

The agency is in the process of establishing a voluntary vessel-tracking portal using its existing capabilities and contacts with the maritime industry, Dana Goward, chief of programs and architecture for the Coast Guard’s Maritime Domain Awareness Program Integration Office, told Seapower.

The portal, a computer access point for ship information, will rely on input from shipping companies interested in working with the Coast Guard for safety and security purposes. As international merchant companies communicate with their vessels, the portal would allow them to also send a feed to the Coast Guard, enabling the agency to simultaneously monitor merchant ships.

Additionally, Goward said, the agency is in the final stages of negotiations with the Maritime Safety Committee of the International Maritime Organization to establish a global tracking program for commercial vessels. The details of the agreement are expected in June.

Also, in August, ORBCOMM, a satellite telecommunications company, will deliver a satellite that supports the Coast Guard’s Automatic Identification System, adding to the service’s ability to watch merchant vessels as they enter U.S. waters.

Reporting by Seapower Correspondent Megan Scully. Editor in Chief Richard C. Barnard, Managing Editor Richard R. Burgess and Assistant Editor David W. Munns contributed to this report.