Coast Guard Sentinel-Class and Acquisitions Moving Forward

RADM Blore

Guest Post from RADM Gary Blore (CG-9), Assistant Commandant for Acquisition

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) today publicly released its report about its decision on the bid protest of the award of the Sentinel-class patrol boat. As I reported earlier this month, the GAO issued a bid protest decision on January 12 that upheld the U.S. Coast Guard’s award of the Sentinel-class Patrol Boat to Bollinger Shipyards, Inc. I don’t think I can overstate the importance to the Coast Guard of the GAO upholding this award. While we had every expectation the award would be upheld, in reviewing the GAO decision, I’m proud that the Coast Guard’s efforts to reform acquisition processes have been demonstrated.

The 153-foot Sentinel-class patrol boat will replace the 110-foot Island-class patrol boats, which have reached the end of their 20-year service lives. This contract award is valued at $88 million. If all options are exercised, the Coast Guard could order as many as 34 cutters on this contract, for a total approximate contract value of $1.5 billion.

New Coast Guard Report Links – Allen and Napolitano

We’ve added two new link categories for both the Commandant of the Coast Guard and Secretary of Homeland Security specific sites.  Both are available on the left hand column.

Secratery Napolitano’s Leadership Journal

One of my first priorities as Secretary will be to meet with as many of the Department’s leaders and employees as possible. This past week, I met with leadership from each DHS component and will be visiting each of our headquarters in the coming days. On Thursday, I had the opportunity to visit with many of the men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard and received an in-depth briefing from Admiral Allen about major issues facing this agency. I look forward to similar visits to other components this week including TSA, ICE and USCIS.

Read more at the Secretary of Homeland Security Leadership Journal.

2009 Budget gives Canadian Coast Guard 67 new boats

Canadas Budget for 2009 provides a catalyst to increase activity in the sector by allocating funds to speed-up needed procurement. The Canadian Coast Guard requires investments in vessels to carry out its responsibility to ensure safe and accessible waterways for Canadians. The Government is investing $175 million on a cash basis for the procurement of new Coast Guard vessels and to undertake vessel life extensions and refits for aging vessels.

While contracts have not yet been awarded, work will be conducted in Canada, and where possible, by shipyards located within the regions of the vessels’ home-ports. New vessel procurements planned are:

• 60 new small craft and 30 new environmental response barges that will support Canadian Coast Guard operational requirements across the country.
• 5 new lifeboats home-ported in Prince Rupert (British Columbia), Campbell River (British Columbia), Dartmouth (Nova Scotia), Québec City (Quebec), and Burlington (Ontario).
• 2 new inshore science vessels home-ported in Mont-Joli (Quebec) and Shippagan (New Brunswick), and one inshore fisheries vessel home-ported in St. Andrews (New Brunswick).

Vessel life extensions involve major repairs such as replacement of hulls, outdated equipment, propulsion systems and generators. The five vessels that will undergo vessel life extensions are the CCGS Bartlett and the CCGS Tanu both home-ported in Victoria (B.C.), the CCGS Tracy home-ported in Québec City (Quebec), the CCGS Limnos home-ported in Burlington (Ontario), and the CCGS Cape Roger home-ported in St. John’s (Newfoundland and Labrador).

Vessel refits are smaller repairs, aimed primarily at updating obsolete operational systems to improve the availability and reliability for delivery of all Coast Guard programs. Of the 35 vessels scheduled for refit, seven are stationed in the Pacific region, five in the Central and Arctic region, seven in the Quebec region, seven in the Maritimes region, and nine in Newfoundland and Labrador.