Defense Technology International – One of the Coast Guardís duties is to patrol the freezing cold waters off the northernmost coast of our United States. And they canít do it in shoddy boats. Two of the three USCG polar icebreakers ñ the Polar Star and Polar Sea ñ have exceeded their intended 30-year service lives. And on the serviceís current schedule, the first replacement ship might not enter service for another decade.
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New York Times – A growing array of military leaders, Arctic experts and lawmakers say the United States is losing its ability to patrol and safeguard Arctic waters even as climate change and high energy prices have triggered a burst of shipping and oil and gas exploration in the thawing region.
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The Times – A US Coast Guard cutter will depart for the Arctic this week as part of a race against Russia to claim the vast spoils of oil and natural gas below the sea floor that both nations are scrambling to exploit.
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Virginian Pilot – Itís namesake is one of the Coast Guardís most storied ships, but todayís Cutter Bear has colorful chapters all its own as it marks its silver anniversary.
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New York Times – For most of human history, the Arctic Ocean has been an ice-locked frontier. But now, in one of the most concrete signs of the effect of a warming climate on government operations, the U.S. Coast Guard is planning its first operating base there as a way of dealing with the cruise ships and the tankers that are already beginning to ply Arctic waters.
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Daily Telegraph – A submarine-like vessel carrying an estimated five metric tons of cocaine worth over 350 million dollars has been intercepted by US border patrol agents off the Guatemalan coast.
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Armed Forces Journal – The Coast Guard has been under fire in the press and on Capitol Hill for a variety of problems associated with the Deepwater fleet recapitalization program. But ahead of the storm of criticism, the service took a deep look at its acquisition structure, and in July, it will establish a dramatically new integrated acquisition directorate.
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Washington Post – Managers of the U.S. Coast Guard’s $24 billion fleet-overhaul program appeared to cover up a Navy engineering report that highlighted design flaws in a new flagship cutter under scrutiny by government investigators.
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Christian Science Monitor – The federally mandated national system is estimated to cost $200 million, but some mariners have already set one up from Maine to New York ñ for $50,000.
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Washington Post – The Coast Guard’s newest cutter, the flagship of a $24 billion plan to modernize the nation’s coastal fleet, suffers from significant design flaws, and the service has failed to properly supervise the contractors doing the work, government inspectors have found.
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Washington Post – A multibillion-dollar effort to modernize the Coast Guard’s fleet has suffered delays, cost increases, design flaws and, most recently, the idling of eight 123-foot patrol boats that were found to be not seaworthy after an $88 million refurbishment.

The sidelining of eight of 10 Miami-based cutters worsens a patrol-boat crisis while the Coast Guard is preparing for an exodus of Cubans that could happen when dictator Fidel Castro is no longer in power, Coast Guard leaders acknowledge.

More broadly, congressional critics warn that early mistakes in the 25-year modernization program, called Deepwater — the Coast Guard’s largest contract ever — are hobbling the service’s transformation into a front-line homeland security force.
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CBC – The US Congress is told the US needs to build new icebreakers to patrol the Northwest Passage.
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Naval War College Review – In the Coast Guardís superb search-and-rescue response to Hurricane Katrina, there was a noticeable absence of Coast Guard medical personnel. The U.S. Coast Guardís health services are not prepared for the operational role that will be forced upon them by a maritime mass-casualty incident, whether terrorist attack or accidentóon a vessel, in a harbor, or on the waterfront. Organizational and cultural change will be required to achieve all-hazards first-response preparedness.
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Sea Power – As lawmakers return from summer recess this month, House and Senate conferees are preparing to spar over funding for the Coast Guardís Deepwater modernization program in fiscal 2006.

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Sea Power – Vice Admiral Vivien Crea cranks up the drug busts as she juggles missions and resources.

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Washington Post – A first hand look at the Coast Guard’s efforts in rescuing individiuals in the Gulf Coast.
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Sea Power – Little-known inside the Coast Guard, the International Affairs office gains entrÈe to nations officially closed to U.S. military influence.

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Sea Power – In the aftermath of 9/11, Coast Guard Intelligence fills a unique and growing niche within the 15-member intelligence community.

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Sea Power – The Coast Guardís more robust aircraft will be modernized for future use under revised aviation plan.

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Sea Power – Coast Guard funds intended for a new fleet are being eaten away by the growing costs of patching up existing ships and planes.

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Sea Power – As Congress tweaks its oversight of homeland security funding and policy this session, the Coast Guard could be caught in a tug-of-war between competing House and Senate committees stubbornly clinging to their turf.

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New York Times – Fearing that the nation’s ports are vulnerable to an underwater attack, the United States Coast Guard is extending its domestic law-enforcement mission into a new arena: the sea below.
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SeaPower – The state of the Coast Guard in January 2005.

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San Diego Union Tribune – The Navy contines to hand its Cyclone-class patrol craft over to the Coast Guard.
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Sea Power – An interview with the commandant of the Coast Guard, Adm. Thomas J. Collins.

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