By Calvin Biesecker
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) budget request for the Coast Guard in FY ’11, which calls for shedding some older assets to build new cutters and aircraft, creates holes in the service’s mission capabilities sooner and later, the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee told a senior DHS official yesterday.
“Your budget says that you’re making these cuts, substantial cuts, in both equipment and manpower in order to fund investments in the new equipment that’s coming on board and yet you don’t include money for the new equipment coming on board,” Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) told Deputy DHS Secretary Jane Holl Lute during a hearing on major acquisition programs at the department. “In the meantime, the Coast Guard is hurting for certain. Now on interdicting drugs, smugglers, the drug war on the border, the violence, and not to mention the sea going difficulties, do you not agree that the investments are not there for the future?”
Rogers noted that while the Coast Guard’s budget request includes $544 million for the fifth National Security Cutter (NSC), it doesn’t include long lead funding for the sixth vessel. The service eventually plans to procure eight NSCs to replace its fleet of 12 Hamilton-class High Endurance Cutters.
If the long-lead materials for NSC 6 aren’t included in the final FY ’11 appropriation, that will create a one-year production break in the program and keep the Coast Guard from its goal of buying one ship per year. Rogers said that the decommissioning of the four High Endurance Cutters, which have been important in stemming the flow of illegal drugs into the United States, as well as a potential NSC production break, will create new holes in the service’s ability to carry out its missions.
DHS, in its FY ’10 budget request, also excluded long-lead funding for NSC 5 although Congress added the money back in the final budget. In its FY ’11 budget documents, the Coast Guard said it intends to fully fund NSC’s 6, 7 and 8 in its FY ’12, 13 and 14 budget requests.
Responding to Rogers, Lute said, “I believe that the Coast Guard is ready and able to perform its missions. The budget takes a realistic view of the asset requirements that currently exist and are projected into FY ’11.”
Rogers also pointed out to several other proposed asset cuts in the Coast Guard’s budget request, including the retirement of five HC-95 search and rescue helicopters. The service recently completed a re-engining program for its fleet of around 90 HC-95s. He also pointed out that the budget request contains no funding for unmanned aircraft systems that would operate from the NSC fleet, a key capability in multiplying the effectiveness of the planned eight-ship fleet as it replaces the 12-ship High Endurance Cutter fleet.
The High Endurance Cutters, like many of the Coast Guard’s current assets, are old and are having difficulty sustaining operations due to the need for frequent and expensive repairs.
The looming risk to Coast Guard mission effectiveness in the FY ’11 budget was actually mentioned by Commandant Adm. Thad Allen earlier this year. In January, he said the need to recapitalize service assets meant having to accept more risks to its operations (Defense Daily, Jan. 14). He backtracked somewhat from those remarks after the DHS budget request was released, saying that missions would get done (Defense Daily, Feb. 17). However, Rogers, quoting from recent media reports, cited Allen as saying that there will be specific decreases in Coast Guard mission effectiveness, such as drug and alien migrant interdiction, under the proposed budget submission.
Rogers also attacked a proposal to eliminate over 1,000 billets from the Coast Guard’s uniformed personnel to help pay for the recapitalization plans. His remarks echo those of other Republicans last week who are concerned that the FY ’11 DHS budget request is sacrificing front line mission effectiveness.
One of the key targets of Republican ire is a more than 50 percent increase in the operating budget of DHS, most of which relates to getting the department’s new headquarters ready, although some of the request will increase the size of the bureaucracy. Lute yesterday, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano last week, told Congress that the increases in staff are necessary if the department is going to be able to effectively manage its various programs.