Coast Guard's Deepwater program 'officially dead,' admiral says

A senior Coast Guard official has declared the service's $27 billion "Deepwater" acquisition program is officially dead, both as a concept and as a procurement program, reports Federal Computer Week.

Writing under the headline, “Deepwater R.I.P.” in the agency’s Service Lines publication, Rear Admiral Jake Korn, assistant commandant for acquisition and chief acquisition officer, said the agency’s ambitious but troubled program to modernize its marine and air assets that started in 2002 was now in its final days.

"The time has come for the U.S. Coast Guard to officially drop the Deepwater name from any reference to our acquisition portfolio,” Korn wrote in the report. “The active period of performance for the last line item under the Integrated Coast Guard Systems contract ends in January, and there will be no further work initiated.”

The Coast Guard is moving forward to fulfill its modernization goals in several ongoing asset modernization and replacement efforts, Korn added in the Dec. 8 article.

Reader Comments

Tue, Jan 10, 2012

Here is why they need to declare it dead. To spin away the truth. The fact is that the GAO and DHS IG have shown that the program is in extremely bad shape and getting worse as is the capability of the Coast Guard to perform it's missions. The Coast Guard wants you to believe this is a money problem not a leadership one. If it were a money problem they could hold ICGS accountable for the program wide false performance guaranty. After all ICGS signed a performance contract, performance is demonstrably and measurably worse and that was guaranteed not to happen. That legal claim is $9B+. (Add in holding ICGS accountable for the 123 debacle and that $9B+ starts to become real money) http://www.oig.dhs.gov/assets/Mgmt/OIG_11-111_Sep11.pdf http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/20/old-coast-guard-cutters-r_n_1161268.html http://fcw.com/articles/2012/01/04/coast-guard-chief-acquisition-officer-declares-deepwater-to-be-dead.aspx http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2012/01/no-more-deepwater-diving.html http://www.navytimes.com/news/2011/07/coast-guard-deepwater-program-report-072911w/

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