By Geoff Fein
Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) lashed out yesterday at the Coast Guard for not putting forth more effort to recover funds spent on an attempt to extend the service’s 110-foot Island-class cutters to the 123-foot configuration.
The Coast Guard is hoping to get the Deepwater Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS) team to negotiate a settlement to the service’s attempts to recoup the money spent on the conversion effort.
“We are talking about $80 million in disputed money, about eight ruined ships, and quite frankly admiral (Vice Adm. Robert Papp, chief of staff, United States Coast Guard) I have to believe if we were talking about your money or my money we would be a lot more demanding in straightening this out than what I have seen out of the Coast Guard,” Taylor said yesterday during a House Transportation and Infrastructure Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation subcommittee hearing on the FY ’09 Coast Guard budget.
“I expect you guys to do better. And it’s not going to go away, and yes I am aware that the person who did the work is a major contributor to the president. It’s public record, but that doesn’t make it right. It needs to get fixed,” he added.
The Coast Guard decommissioned the cutters and is looking to settle with the ICGS team for the amount of money the service believes it is owed.
Taylor added he would propose an amendment to the Coast Guard’s authorization bill that would either require the contractor to pay to fix the boats, or demand the contractor reimburse the Coast Guard and pay the cost to destroy the eight decommissioned cutters.
Conversion of the eight 123-foot boats was done by Bollinger Shipyards, under a subcontract with Northrop Grumman [NOC].
The Coast Guard spent about $100 million on the conversion effort, which included the 13-foot lengthening to improve crew accommodations and create a stern launch and recovery small boat ramp, new C4ISR systems, and structural enhancements. However, both the 110-foot vessels and their upgraded 123-footers have been beset with hull integrity issues that have prompted one fix after another without ever seeming to solve the problem (Defense Daily, Dec. 1).
“As a representative of the taxpayers, I certainly cannot be pleased with what happened and the lack of what appears to be an effort by the Coast Guard to sweep this under the rug and pretend like it never happened,” Taylor said.
The Coast Guard had hoped to upgrade and lengthen all 49 of its 110-foot cutters, but hull bucklings and shaft alignment problems forced the service to halt operations with the upgraded vessels (Defense Daily, May 21).
In May 2007, the Coast Guard informed the ICGS, made up of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Northrop Grumman, that it had revoked its earlier acceptance of the eight patrol boats previously upgraded and delivered by the company under the Deepwater modernization program, saying the cutters could not meet their performance requirements (Defense Daily, May 21).
The Coast Guard estimated the total cost to repair and modify all eight cutters will be over $50 million (Defense Daily, April 18).
But on Tuesday, Taylor said he has been talking with Navy leadership about doing an analysis of the 110-cutters and the cost to fix them.
“I have been in touch with [Vice] Adm. Paul Sullivan (Commander, Naval Sea Systems Command) and he says for $1 million he can do a definitive analysis of the 110s…what went wrong…what it would take to fix them…and then we as a nation can make a judgment if our money is better spent fixing them, or more appropriately, if the contractor’s money is better spent fixing them, or if we are better off just having the contractor reimburse our money plus the cost of destroying those vessels,” Taylor said. “It is my intention to offer that as an amendment when your authorization bill comes up.”
Subcommittee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) questioned Papp about the status of the National Security Cutter (NSC), which has been undergoing machinery and builder’s trials in the Gulf of Mexico.
Papp said NSC had exceeded the Coast Guard’s expectation on its machinery trials. The CGC Bertholf (WMSL-750) completed builder’s trials earlier this month and will begin acceptance trials in March. A Navy Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV) team will be aboard the Bertholf during the upcoming trials, Papp said.
The Coast Guard is expected to take delivery of the Bertholf in late April or May, he added.
Until then, there are still some issues the Coast Guard will need to remedy, Papp noted.
“We are having some small concerns right now about information assurance. We are going through the TEMPEST inspections. We suspect we can solve all those problems. They may not be completely solved at the time when it comes to make the decision to accept,” he said. “However, you have to balance that against keeping [Bertholf] in the shipyard and incurring additional cost.”
If there is still unresolved work to be done, Papp said the builders can come out to the ship after delivery and work on the fixes. “The ship is basically under warranty so we can continue to get work [done], but we need to get that ship and that crew underway.”
The Coast Guard is continuing TEMPEST testing, Papp said.
“We have discovered some problems. As I [said], we think they are all solvable. It may require some minor rerouting of wiring, insulation to cabinets, etc., but it is stuff that is technologically feasible and I think easily resolved,” he added.
TEMPEST tests and inspects emission security requirements.
Cummings also wanted to know about the integrity of the NSC’s hull and whether any further assessments have been made regarding the potential problems with the ship’s hull fatigue life.
The Coast Guard has come up with a solution for hulls three through eight, Papp explained.
“[It’s] probably going to cost $5 million per ship, which in the overall of cost of the ship, is not highly significant,” he said. “[It’s] a fairly simple design change for those ships.”
For the Bertholf, and the CGC Waesche (WMSL-751), the Coast Guard will have to do some work after the two ships are delivered, Papp said.
“We are continuing to go through the process of determining what exactly we will need to do to those two ships,” he said. “In fact when Bertholf is delivered, she’ll be instrumented so we can take various readings as she goes through exercises.”
That way, something the Coast Guard doesn’t have to correct immediately can be done over a series of yard periods over the life of the ship, Papp added.