Aging fleet of Cutters

[ollie]

Old fleet asked to fill new mission

LES BLUMENTHAL; The News Tribune
Published: July 19th, 2005 06:19 AM



WASHINGTON – The Coast Guard’s high-endurance cutter Midgett plies the waters of the Pacific from the Arctic Circle to the equator, chasing cocaine smugglers off South America and assisting in the search and rescue of King crab fishermen in the perilous Bering Sea.
Commissioned in 1972 and based in Seattle, the Midgett is the newest of the Coast Guard’s fleet of a dozen 378-foot cutters. Though it has been well maintained, it is starting to show its age.

“We are looking at engines and machinery that is nearing 40 years old and technology that is 50 years old,” said the Midgett’s captain, George Russell. “These cutters have a lot of life left in them, but they won’t last forever.”

In many ways, the Midgett symbolizes the dilemma the Coast Guard faces in meeting new homeland security responsibilities with an aging fleet of boats, ships and aircraft.

Once part of the U.S. Transportation Department, the Coast Guard has been folded into the Department of Homeland Security. Its added duties include such things as escorting Washington state’s ferries and conducting air intercept operations with armed helicopters over events requiring national security, such as last year’s political conventions.

And as the Coast Guard focuses increasingly on the “up-tempo operations” required to guard the nation’s ports and waterways, there is growing concern about whether it has enough equipment, personnel and money to fulfill such traditional missions as search and rescue and fisheries enforcement.

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the number of operational hours the Coast Guard has spent on port, waterway and coastal security has increased 1,200 percent, according to a study from the Government Accountability Office.

Meanwhile, hours spent on search and rescue were down 22 percent, illegal drug interdiction down 44 percent, protecting marine species down 26 percent and foreign fishing boat enforcement down 16 percent.

Prior to 9/11, the Coast Guard spent roughly a third of its time on security-related missions and two-thirds on other missions. That has now flipped, the GAO said.

“There is no doubt there has been a substantial shift,” said Margaret Wrightson, GAO’s homeland security director. “The Coast Guard has all these balls in the air and they are running as hard as they can.”

The Coast Guard’s commandant, Adm. Thomas Collins, acknowledged the increasing pressure and the deterioration of Coast Guard aircraft and ships at an alarming rate. While homeland security issues are now on the front-burner, Collins insisted the Coast Guard continues to meet other responsibilities.

“We have not stepped back one iota,” Collins said in a telephone interview. “We are answering all our mail.”

Along Washington state’s inland waters, the Coast Guard has more than 20 boats and ships, ranging from 25-foot response boats to large cutters. Work began this month on a $16 million state-of-the-art command center in Seattle.

One of the Coast Guard’s 13 elite Maritime Safety and Security Teams is based in Seattle. The 75-member teams are trained in such duties as underwater port security and “non-permissive” boarding of suspect vessels.

“The Coast Guard in Puget Sound –everywhere for that matter – is still able to complete its missions,” said Chief Petty Officer Adam Eggers, a Coast Guard spokesman in Seattle. Even though increased maintenance and lost patrol days can be frustrating, “we simply refuse to let anything stop us from carrying out our duties,” he said.

An aging fleet of boats, ships

Many of the Coast Guard’s boats and ships are at or nearing the end of their estimated service lives.

Almost half of its 110-foot patrol boats have experienced breached hulls from corrosion. In June, Collins told Congress that was “unsustainable” and presented “unacceptable risks” to sailors.

In-flight engine power losses on the Coast Guard’s HH-65 helicopters, a mainstay of its air operations, occurred 329 times per 100,000 flight hours last year, five times greater than the previous year. The Federal Aviation Administration standard for such mishaps is one per 100,000 flight hours. Collins said the problem has resulted in operational and flight restrictions and a “high level” of risk to flight crews. Three HH-65s are based in Port Angeles.

As for the Coast Guard’s biggest cutters, such as the Midgett, three of the 12 have recently missed operations for unscheduled maintenance. And many have experienced a fire during deployment.

“One of our ships is old enough to start collecting Social Security,” Collins said. Even so, he said, “I think we are delivering up to the capability and capacity we have.”

Capt. Russell said the Midgett is in relatively good condition for a 33-year-old vessel, but, he added, the older a ship gets the more maintenance it requires.

On a voyage south this spring, a fitting on the Midgett’s emergency gas turbine generator broke, requiring a two-week layover in San Diego. On the same patrol, a flash fire in a main engineering space was quickly extinguished. But it would have created a catastrophic situation if it had spread to high-pressure fuel and hydraulic lines.

In addition, replacement parts for older ships are difficult to find. Such major equipment as the Midgett’s turbines and propellers are no longer manufactured. Russell said the Coast Guard has a supply of rebuilt spares, but they are being depleted.

As the Midgett continues to chase drug smugglers, stop ships carrying illegal immigrants, rescue fishermen and monitor foreign fishing vessels trying to sneak into U.S. waters, it is also taking on homeland security duties.

In an effort to push out the borders and keep terrorists threats offshore, crew members are being trained to rappel down the stacks of containers carried by gigantic freighters.

Eventually, the Midgett’s crew might be asked to board ships transiting the Unimak Pass, a key navigation channel through the Aleutians from the North Pacific to the Bering Sea for cargo ships bound from China, Japan and Korea to the United States, Russell said.

In the next year or so, after a spell in dry dock, the Midgett will join the Coast Guard presence in the Persian Gulf.

Concerns about upgrade program

Eventually, the Midgett will be replaced by a new cutter as part of the Coast Guard’s Deepwater program. Nearly all Coast Guard ships and aircraft will be replaced as part of the program, at a cost of $19 billion to $24 billion.

But critics say the Bush administration is making a mistake by extending the program over 25 years when it really needs to be a 10- or 15-year program.

A recent study for the Coast Guard concluded the Deepwater program will not provide all the ships and planes needed to meet the service’s “traditional missions and emerging responsibilities.” The RAND Corp. study said the Coast Guard needs to acquire twice as many cutters and 50 percent more aircraft than it’s planning for the next two decades.

“All of these things come under affordability issues,” said Adm. Collins. “The administration has to make some tough choices.”

On Capitol Hill, criticism of Deepwater is mounting, particularly the administration’s decision to stretch it out.

“If we take this tack, the service will continue to be stretched too far and too thin – we cannot afford a weakened U.S. Coast Guard in a post-Sept. 11th world,” said Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Edmonds) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) in requesting an additional GAO study of Deepwater. Snowe heads the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Fisheries and the Coast Guard, and Cantwell is the leading Democrat on the subcommittee. Cantwell is one of four Washington state lawmakers serving on committees that oversee the Coast Guard.

“This is unbelievable,” said Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Belfair), a senior Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee. “You can’t double their responsibilities and then ask them to operate with 50-year-old ships.”

Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Bellevue) vice chairman of the House Transportation Subcommittee on the Coast Guard, said he thought the service was in turmoil, and while Congress needed to be patient, it also needed to keep the pressure on.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Seattle), a member of the Senate homeland security appropriations subcommittee, said the Coast Guard is in a tough spot. “You can see the stress in their faces,” she said.

But with tight budgets, Murray said it’s unlikely Congress will provide additional funding this year.

source is:

http://www.thenewstribune.com/front/...-4590665c.html

[Woodmonkey]

Originally Posted by ollie

“If we take this tack, the service will continue to be stretched too far and too thin – we cannot afford a weakened U.S. Coast Guard in a post-Sept. 11th world,” said Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Edmonds) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) in requesting an additional GAO study of Deepwater. Snowe heads the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Fisheries and the Coast Guard, and Cantwell is the leading Democrat on the subcommittee. Cantwell is one of four Washington state lawmakers serving on committees that oversee the Coast Guard.

“This is unbelievable,” said Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Belfair), a senior Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee. “You can’t double their responsibilities and then ask them to operate with 50-year-old ships.”

Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Bellevue) vice chairman of the House Transportation Subcommittee on the Coast Guard, said he thought the service was in turmoil, and while Congress needed to be patient, it also needed to keep the pressure on.

If Congress would cut out some pork, there would be more funds available for essential programs ... like the Coast Guard.

[ollie]

Funny thing about this is that I was in the Coast Guard, 1967-71. I remember when the Dallas WHEC 716, a 378 footer was NEWLY commissioned and reported to Staten Island for her first duty station. Its hard to believe that the then state of the art cutter is now an aged, decrepit broken down almost 40 year old hulk.

But it also doesn't surprise me either. My ship, the Tamaroa was 26 years old when I was on her.She lasted til the venerable age of 51 in 1994. Old age and the lack of a flight deck doomed her.

ollie

[Bluehawk]

Any current status report on USCG funding?

[ollie]

Blue,

Right now congress and the prez are arguing over DeepWater. That program was designed several years ago to replace our aging fleet. Congress and the CG want to speed up Deep Water and the Prez wants to stretch it out for 25 years. Meanwhile our helicopters have doors that fall off in flight and engines that fail in flight. Our 110’ patrol boats are literally corroding away.

Ships are so old that parts for their pumps, engines, turbines, et.c are not even made anymore. I am going to start a letter writing campaign to our senators. Probably won’t work, but I have to try. Once a Coastie always a Coastie, you know.

ollie

[Bluehawk]

Originally Posted by ollie

Blue,

Right now congress and the prez are arguing over DeepWater. That program was designed several years ago to replace our aging fleet. Congress and the CG want to speed up Deep Water and the Prez wants to stretch it out for 25 years. Meanwhile our helicopters have doors that fall off in flight and engines that fail in flight. Our 110’ patrol boats are literally corroding away.

Ships are so old that parts for their pumps, engines, turbines, et.c are not even made anymore. I am going to start a letter writing campaign to our senators. Probably won’t work, but I have to try. Once a Coastie always a Coastie, you know.

ollie

This worries me, William.

It worries me a great deal, and I don't know what to do about it.