Coast Guard Acquisitions: Status of Coast Guard's Heavy Polar Icebreaker Acquisition

Abstract

Since 1965, U.S. Coast Guard has been responsible for providing polar icebreaking capability for the United States. The Coast Guard has two active polar icebreakers, including one heavy polar icebreaker that is nearing the end of its expected service life. To maintain its polar icebreaking capability, the Coast Guard is seeking to acquire three new heavy polar icebreakers. The Coast Guard established the heavy polar icebreaker acquisition program in 2012 and anticipates delivery of the lead ship in 2023. In 2016, the Coast Guard established an integrated program office with the Navy to leverage the Navy's shipbuilding expertise for acquiring the icebreakers.1 The Coast Guard, as a component within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is generally required to follow DHSs acquisition policies. Section 122 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 included a provision for us to assess issues related to the procurement of new heavy polar icebreaker vessels. This report provides information on (1) the status of the Coast Guards and Navys efforts to acquire new heavy polar icebreakers and (2) how DHS, Coast Guard, and Navy are planning to manage and oversee the heavy polar icebreaker acquisition through an integrated program office. We conducted this performance audit from January 2018 through April 2018 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 13, 2018
Accession Number
AD1169868

Entities

People

  • Claire Li
  • David Wishard
  • Kristine Hassinger
  • Marie A. Mak
  • Miranda Riemer
  • Rick Cederholm
  • Roxanna Sun
  • Samuel Woo
  • Susan Ditto

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accountability
  • Acquisition
  • Coast Guard
  • Congress
  • Contracts
  • Cost Estimates
  • Cost Overruns
  • Costs
  • Department Of Homeland Security
  • Electronic Mail
  • Fabrication
  • Governments
  • Homeland Security
  • House Of Representatives
  • Icebreakers
  • National Security
  • Procurement
  • Regulations
  • Security
  • Shipbuilding
  • Social Media
  • United States
  • Websites

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Government Contracting/Procurement.
  • Maritime Security/Maritime Homeland Security