I've been watching the hearings tonight concerning the Coast Guards Deepwater Program mainly concerning the failure of the 110"/123" Patrol Boat conversions. A 90 MILLION dollar failure by the way.
Holy crap Batman!!!!! I just got out of the Coast Guard and I knew some of the things they are talking about in these hearings but Jesus!!!!!!! Lockheed really screwed the pooch on the 123's and the comittee is raking them over the coals. GOOD!!!!!!!!!! Coast Guard higher ups are getting hammered as well. GOOD!!!!!!!!!
I said it 6 years ago when Deepwater came about that turning over the entire program to private industry was going to bite us in the bellybutton and what do you know......I was right. The Coast Guard really screwed up by letting the CONTRACTOR tell the Coast Guard what we needed to do our mission. Anyone else think that was a dumb idea besides me?
I've always said the best way to run the deepwater program is this. Get a Chief, Senior Chief, Master Chief, and a Warrant Officer from every rate in the Coast Guard and stick them all in a room with ONE mission. Come up with the specifications needed for every platform we will need for the next 30 years and to allow for modernization programs every ten years. That's it.
Once they have the specs then send those specs out to industry to bid on the contracts, with the understanding that the Coast Guard has the final say so and oversight on ALL projects.
Instead the Coast Guard let a bunch of junior officers and mid grade officers with little or NO fleet experiance work on the program. I know because for the last 4 years the command I was assigned to has been working hand in hand with Integrated Coast Guard Systems ( the conglomorate that has the contract ) and many of the officers in my command have attended ICGS meetings.
I myself have brought up performance issues with equipment purchased or installed under the deepwater program and was told by my bosses to keep my mouth shut because bringing those concerns up would breach the contracts. Go figure. And to think I was offered a job as a civilian contractor in my last command to be part of the deepwater program. Needless to say I told them hell no.
What a mess.
