my own drum

Response article to New York Times original artice 'Failure to Navigate'

The U.S. Coast Guard set about on an ambitious plan to retrofit their existing fleet of ships and aircraft, and to add additional capabilities. This was to enable them to expand their current missions to include homeland security. And then something went horribly, expensively, wrong.

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In fact, what went wrong was that the Coast Guard virtually turned over the entire project to the lead contractors. Those contractors are Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.

And instead of managing the project itself, the Coast Guard hired Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, two of the nation’s largest military contractors, to plan, supervise and deliver the new vessels and helicopters.

Excuse me, but isn't that a bit like asking a junkie not to steal the radio out of your car? You've just given two of the largest military contractors a fat check, and you've elicted a promise from them not only to deliver, but also to be fair and equitable. To date the contractors have done neither. Who could have guessed?

Instead, after four years, the U.S. Coast guard has about 8 fewer vessels in operation than before the project began. Those vessels were subjected to a flawed retrofit, essentially making a 110 foot boat into a 123 ft boat. Right now the Coast Guard effectively owns eight 123 ft door stops, none of the vessels are seaworthy and have been placed on limited or no duty status. That represents a cool $100M out of your pocket Mr Taxpayer.

New ship designs have also turned out to be flawed and/or not a good value for the Coast Guard. Northrup has designed a new vessel, at 147 ft, but they have designed it with a composite hull instead of using steel. The price of these vessels was originally set an $18M, and after just two years has soared to $40M. Is there something wrong with steel plating? Why yes, it appears there may be a conflict of interest.

Northrop had just spent $64 million to turn its shipyard in Gulfport, Miss., into the country’s first large-scale composite hull manufacturing plant for military ships

Their prototype failed it's first test in the water and that program was cancelled, but Northrup still got $38M and they wasted three years of production. I want my money back! And don't give it to any of my Congressmen either, send me a check. You give it to them and it's good as gone again.

There are more flawed projects floating in the Deepwater cesspool. The Coast Guard's flagship is to be the National Security Cutter (NSC). At 425 ft long it has a crew capacity of around 150 and is designed for patrol that last months, not days or weeks. The ships were to be equipped with two drones, giving them the ability to patrol 56,000 square miles a day. That's four times the current ability of the Coast Guard vessels (assuming that vessels are operational and on the water). Alas, there are design problems that affect the structural integrity of these ships. The first ship has been launched, but it's drones are languishing for lack of funding. The entire project would appear to be rife with poor ethics on the part of the contractors, if not outright fraud. And the Coast Guard has been forced to lower its delivery expectations.

There are so many people involved with this boondoggle that I don't have enough fingers to point. The Coast Guard flat out failed to be involved. It was their mission and their money, but they simply deferred to the contractors. The lead contractors need to be keelhauled. I mean that! Members of Congress who were wined and dined to keep the money flowing should be expelled from office. They know better, but politics as usual is the game they like to play best. Let us not forget the reason that this project was commissioned. After the attacks on America, our newly created Homeland Security absorbed the U.S. Coast Guard, and gave them a mandate to protect America's shores from acts of terrorism. Will someone please stop this flagrant and systematic abuse of our beaucracy and get this job done? Thank You.