Page 46: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 2016)

U.S. COAST GUARD ANNUAL: THE COMMANDANT INTERVIEW hovering at $40, and it may stay in that price range for much more optimistic today than I was two years ago systems in the air and probably under and on the wa- some period of time to come. But it won’t be there in- when I start looking at our future, and more important- ter, as well. And if I look out 20 years from now, we de? nitely, and as oil prices start to recover, we fully ly, if we’re an Arctic nation, our ability to say more should have at least two, like-new, heavy icebreakers expect there will be more oil and gas exploration up in than words but match that with our deeds, as well. It’s with probably at least 30 years of service life remaining the Arctic, as well, in the offshore domain. And there as imperative that we do exert U.S. in? uence in this on them, as well. Those would be the “heavy artillery” are a number of other nations interested in the Arctic, domain, but we cannot do it from the shore – we must of the Coast Guard. too. Then we start looking at the traf? c across the Arc- be operating in this domain, as well. So on a hardware side, and within our acquisition tic – whether it’s the Northwest Passage or the northern budget, I’m actually quite optimistic. Our acquisition sea route, Canada and Russia treat those as internal wa- Regarding acquisition and recapitalization: how do budget in ’16 doubled: the best acquisition budget ever ters, not the high seas, so there are navigation concerns you see the ? eet and its capabilities evolving over the dating back to 1790 for the United States Coast Guard. in those domains, as well, looking forward, much like next generation? But what I can’t take my eye off the ball on is the we have Freedom of Navigation concerns in the South most critical element: people. We must continue to in-

China Sea. But make no mistake, the United States is an If I were to look at my crystal ball, looking out vest in our human resource capital, not just recruiting,

Arctic nation. It’s not an area where we have invested, 20 years, by that time we will have completed all 58 of the training, but more importantly, the retention of that really, in any signi? cant way in more than a couple of our fast-response cutters, our new patrol boats, very ca- work force, as well. So you can have all the great tools decades. So with the president’s announcement back in pable platforms. Twenty years from now, our national in the kit, but if you don’t have that human resource

September that one, we’re an Arctic nation, and two, security cutters (we just had a ninth one added into our capital, it could be a potential train wreck for us. The we need to invest in icebreakers, his budget request ’16 budget) won’t even be at their half-life yet. And 20 last strategy we rolled out (about three or four months for 2017 actually starts to put some meaningful money years from now, we will have just completed building ago) is the human strategy for the Coast Guard that into making this investment into the Arctic. We’ve met all 25 of our offshore patrol cutters. That really is go- looks at recruiting, training, retaining active duty, re- with industry and they are keenly incentivized to build ing be the foundation of the Coast Guard. Twenty years serve, civilian, and yes, even our all-volunteer auxiliary the heavy icebreakers here in the United States. So I’m from now, we’ll be much more engaged in unmanned workforce, because we need them all.

Coast Guard Photos 46 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • MAY 2016

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