The estimated life-cycle costs for the Coast Guard’s planned fleet of three heavy polar icebreakers is $9.8 billion and the program faces a number of risks, including design, technology, cost and schedule, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The cost estimate includes acquisition, operations and maintenance of the icebreakers over a 30-year service life. The program is being managed by an integrated Navy and Coast Guard office and the Navy expects the contract for detail design and construction of the first vessel to occur in the third quarter of fiscal year 2019 with work to begin in June, the GAO says.
The report follows testimony by GAO in July before a House panel that called the schedule for delivery of the first icebreaker by 2023 as “highly optimistic” on unrealistic (Defense Daily, July 24). That testimony also said the Coast Guard hasn’t “established a sound acquisition business case” for the ship.
The Coast Guard has a requirement for three heavy polar icebreakers and three medium polar icebreakers. The service currently has one of each but the Polar Star, the heavy vessel, is nearing the end of its expected service life and the Coast Guard’s priority is for the heavy icebreakers. The Polar Star’s service life is expected to last until between 2020 and 2023 but the Coast Guard is planning to extend the life out to around 2025 or 2026, which is about when the second new heavy icebreaker is planned for delivery, the GAO says.
The report says the Coast Guard established its acquisition program baseline without conducting a preliminary design review to assess design maturity or technology readiness. GAO says the design maturity assessment isn’t planned until after the contract award, which means the Coast Guard will “be committing resources to the HPIB program without key elements of a sound business case, increasing the risks that the program will exceed its planned costs and schedule.” HPIB refers to heavy polar icebreaker.
The report also says that proven technologies are planned for the HPIB but that the Coast Guard hasn’t assessed the readiness of key technologies. Key technologies that could pose a risk to the program include the integrated power plant, azimuthing propulsors, and the hull form, GAO says.
However, the report cites Coast Guard officials as saying the technologies planned for their heavy icebreakers are already in use and that industry proposals are required to include information on the maturity of the technologies they are proposing.
Technical proposals for the heavy icebreaker program were due in August and price proposals in October.
The Department of Homeland Security concurred with the GAO’s recommendations for the program.