U.S. COAST GUARD
Stratton, the third Coast Guard National Security Cutter, is moored at Huntington Ingalls Industries shipyard in Pascagoula,
Miss., July 29 after completing builder’s trials. The cutter is scheduled for delivery to the Coast Guard in the fall.
Stratton is estimated to cost
$551 million and is being built by
Huntington Ingalls Industries in
Pascagoula, Miss.
Prefabrication began for the
fourth NSC, Hamilton, in June and
a contract for long-lead materials
for the unnamed fifth NSC was
awarded in January.
Deepwater Horizon
Oil Spill Cleanup
Efforts Continue
U.S. Coast Guard cleanup efforts
continue in the Gulf of Mexico as a
result of last year’s historic Deepwater Horizon oil spill that saw an
estimated 4. 9 million barrels of oil
discharged over a four-month span.
“The current operational plan is
based on the worst-case scenario for
cleanup at sea and that includes
keeping assets in the air and on the
water, but we will be here until all of
the oil is cleaned up at sea and on
shore,” Coast Guard Rear Adm. Paul
Zukunft, the federal on-scene coordinator, said in a July 19 statement.
“This is a dynamic situation
where weather really does play the
upper hand,” he said. “The biggest
enemy is complacency, so we
maintain a sense of urgency be-
cause there is an awful lot of oil in
the Gulf of Mexico. There will be
no reduction of effort, commit-
ment or urgency.”
The Coast Guard has been the
lead federal agency in charge of
response.
USCG Recapitalization
Costs Continue To Rise
The Coast Guard’s 25-year recapitalization program could cost more
than $5 billion above the original
$24.2 billion baseline, according to a
July 28 Government Accountability
Office (GAO) report.
“The Deepwater program con-
tinues to exceed the cost and
schedule baselines approved by
[the Department of Homeland Se-
curity (DHS)] in 2007, but several
factors continue to preclude a solid
understanding of the program’s
true cost and schedule,” according
to the report, titled “Action
Needed As Approved Deepwater
Program Remains Unachievable.”
DHS is the agency that oversees the
Coast Guard.
Reporting by Seapower Correspondent
Megan Scully. Managing Editor Richard
R. Burgess and Assistant Editor John C.
Marcario contributed to this report.
