Coast Guard. As Deepwater Systems Integrator, Coast Guard is Reassessing Costs and Capabilities but Lags in Applying its Disciplined Acquisition Approach
Abstract
The Deepwater Program-the largest acquisition program in the Coast Guard's history-began in the late 1990s as an effort to recapitalize the Coast Guard's operational fleet. The program now includes projects to build or modernize five classes each of ships and aircraft, and procurement of other capabilities such as improved command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) and unmanned aircraft. Recognizing that it did not have in place a workforce with the experience and depth to manage the acquisition, the Coast Guard contracted with Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS) in June 2002 as a systems integrator for Deepwater. After a series of programmatic failures, the Commandant acknowledged in April 2007 that the Coast Guard had relied too heavily on contractors to do the work of the government and that government and industry had failed to control costs. He announced several major changes to the acquisition approach for Deepwater, the key one being that the Coast Guard would take over the role of systems integrator from ICGS, with future work on individual assets to be potentially bid competitively outside of the existing contract. In May 2007, soon after this announcement, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) approved an acquisition program baseline of $24.2 billion for the Deepwater Program. In response to a direction in the Senate report accompanying the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Bill, 2009, and discussions with your staff, we (1) evaluated Coast Guard efforts to manage the Deepwater Program at both the overall system and asset levels; (2) assessed changes in cost, schedules, and capabilities from the 2007 baseline; and (3) identified Coast Guard efforts to build its acquisition workforce to manage this multibillion dollar program. This report updates information contained in our April 2009 testimony to the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA501882
Entities
People
- Angie Nichols-friedman
- Carolynn Cavanaugh
- Greg Campbell
- J. K. Keener
- John P. Hutton
- Michele Mackin
- Sylvia Schatz
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office