Page 28: of Marine News Magazine (March 2020)

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GOVERNMENT UPDATE “And today we’re developing operational requirements tz, who also pointed out the need to address the Coast for medium icebreakers. A ? eet of at least three Polar Se- Guard’s nearly $2 billion shore infrastructure backlog.

curity Cutters, and three medium icebreakers will ensure “Every mission begins and ends at a Coast Guard facil-

American sovereignty and presence in the Polar Regions ity,” Adm. Schultz said. “Unfortunately, due to years of for decades to come.” ? at-line budgets forcing tradeoffs, the facilities that our

But it is the new Offshore Patrol Cutters that “will be- men and women deploy from and return to are crumbling come the backbone of [the Coast Guard’s] modernized around them.” ? eet,” Adm. Schultz said. “The ? rst in its class, Cutter Ar- Similarly, the Coast Guard’s information technology gus, is already under construction and will be delivered in infrastructure is also in need of a major update, the Com- 2022. The Offshore Patrol Cutter program is set to de- mandant said: “Years of investment tradeoffs have brought liver 25 hulls and that ? eet will ultimately comprise almost our information technology to the brink of catastrophic 70% of our offshore presence.” failure. Just this past summer over 95 vital systems went

Several Offshore Patrol Cutters, as well as ? ve National of? ine for several days due to a single server malfunction,

Security Cutters, will be homeported in Charleston, “a fu- impacting our ability to save U.S. citizens, thwart crimi- ture Coast Guard operational center of gravity”. nals, defend our nation, and yes, even to simply check our

Adm. Schultz shared plans to restore hurricane-damaged email. Our people will never fail our country, but our tech- facilities in South Carolina and expand the Coast Guard’s nology is failing our people.” footprint in the Charleston area. “Over the next ? ve years, Adm. Schultz rolled out a “Tech Revolution” roadmap the Coast Guard will work to consolidate our campus designed to update the Coast Guard’s 1990s-era hard- along one waterfront. This gives Charleston the potential ware, software and analytics. He also described the need to to grow into the largest concentration of assets and people strengthen service innovation initiatives and accelerate the in the Coast Guard.” implementation of the best ideas service-wide to ? eld com- “Charleston is a ? rst stop to nationwide investment in manders. These include the marine inspector mobility ap- our service, our facilities and our people,” said Adm. Schul- plication INSPECT, partnering with Global Fish Watch to

The U.S. Coast Guard helps safeguard maritime commerce.

Credit: Eric Haun

March 2020 28 MN