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presidential directives. 609 The report goes on to note that “should the Coast Guard not obtain
funding for new icebreakers or major service life extensions for its existing icebreakers with
sufficient lead-time, the United States will have no heavy icebreaking capability beyond 2020
and no polar icebreaking capability of any kind by 2029.” 610 As of 2014, the U.S. Coast Guard
has two icebreakers, the Polar Star for breaking heavy ice and the Healy, a medium icebreaker,
which is primarily capable of supporting scientific research, according to the Congressional
Research Service. 611 The U.S. Coast Guard is considering options for replacing the Polar Star
when it reaches the end of its service life by 2022, including building a new icebreaker or
reactivating the Polar Sea, which went inactive after engine failure in 2010. 612
USCG’s Challenges with Information Technology Projects
Along with its challenges with fleet recapitalization, the U.S. Coast Guard has also
struggled with some key information technology initiatives that were aimed to support and
harmonize decision-making and operations across the USCG’s vast areas of responsibility, as
well as share information with key partners. For example, the Coast Guard’s initiative to create
a Common Operational Picture and share information between its assets and commanders is
still not successfully deployed across the USCG. Several recent GAO audits have identified
these struggles, despite the large expenditures that have been made on these information
technology projects. In 2011, GAO reported that the Coast Guard had “not met its goal of
building a single, fully operational Command, Control, Communications, Computers,
Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance program (C4ISR) system,” despite spending $2.5
billion. 613 A February 2012 audit found that USCG’s Watchkeeper software, a key component of
a $74 million project to collect and share information for operators involved with port security,
“met few port agency partner needs, in part because the agency failed to determine these needs
609 Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, “The Coast Guard’s Polar Icebreaker
Maintenance, Upgrade, and Acquisition Program,” OIG-11-31, January 2011.
610 Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, The Coast Guard’s Polar Icebreaker Maintenance,
Upgrade, and Acquisition Program, OIG-11-31, January 2011, pp. 1 (Executive Summary) and 10.
611 Ronald O’Rourke, “Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker Modernization: Background and Issues for Congress,”
Congressional Research Service, August 4, 2014.
612 Ibid.
613 Government Accountability Office, Coast Guard: Observations on Progress Made and Challenges Faced in
Developing and Implementing a Common Operational Picture, GAO-13- 784T, July 31, 2013, p. 2.
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