$9.3B request comes with tales of aging fleet

$9.3B request comes with tales of aging fleet
By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Feb 11, 2008 6:58:49 EST

The Coast Guard sent Congress a record $9.3 billion budget request for fiscal 2009 on Feb. 4, and soon after, service officials set out to make their case for how much they need that money by unleashing a series of maritime horror stories — tales of hull cracks, broken gear and lost propellers.

More than a year after their first big embarrassments over waste and mismanagement in the Deepwater recapitalization program, Coast Guard officials have tried to emphasize the progress they’ve made in getting it back on track: standing up a separate acquisitions directorate, rejecting eight defective 123-foot patrol boats and emphasizing the builder’s trials of the first national security cutter, the Bertholf.

“We’re not out of the woods yet, but we’re cutting down some trees” has become a common saying of Adm. Thad Allen, the Coast Guard’s commandant, along with “What a difference a year makes.”

The Coast Guard also is trying to underscore that, despite Deepwater’s problems, it needs the program’s new assets because its ships are disintegrating after decades of hard use. In the days after unveiling their budget request, officials cited several recent problems:

* First was the case of the 64-year-old cutter Acushnet — the Coast Guard’s oldest ship and, as such, bearer of the informal title “Queen of the Fleet” — which lost its screw in December, spokesman Cmdr. Brendan McPherson said. The ship’s propeller separated completely from its shaft, a significant problem made worse because the ship’s age means it has no off-the-shelf spare parts, forcing engineers to custom-build a new propeller and all the other equipment needed to make the repair. In its budget request, the service announced that it hopes to decommission the Acushnet by 2009.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/02/coastguard_oldfleet_080210w/



uhc comment: You knew it was coming --> http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=259&topic_id=11092